Not One More Mother's Child

Not One More Mother's Child, by Cindy Sheehan (Koa Books, 2005); 204
pages; $15.00.

by Sam Bostaph, December 14, 2005

On August 3, 2005, a former youth minister in Vacaville, California,
was at home watching a television report of the deaths of 14 more U.S.
Marines in Iraq. Her eldest son, whom she deeply loved, had been
killed 16 months earlier in Sadr City, Baghdad, by members of a
Shi'ite militia group. Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan was
ambushed and murdered while he was on a mission to rescue wounded
soldiers. As part of the television report, there was shown a clip of
President George W. Bush describing his preemptive war against Iraq
and the subsequent occupation of that country as "a noble cause," one
that justified the casualties among U.S. forces. Bush added that the
Iraq "mission" needed to be completed "to honor the sacrifices of the
fallen." Those words so enraged Cindy Sheehan that she decided to go
to the Bush ranch near Crawford, Texas, and demand that he explain his
"noble cause" and that he stop using the bodies of her son and others
to justify the continued killing. Her subsequent emergence as a
leading figure in the anti-war movement began with her arrival in
Crawford three days later.

Sheehan's crusade against the war did not begin in Crawford. Since
Casey's death, little more than a month shy of his 25th birthday, she
had written letters, given speeches, and testified before Congress
against the war and continued occupation of Iraq, as well as founding
the Gold Star Families for Peace. But it was her vigil in a roadside
ditch outside the president's ranch, as she and other protesters
waited in vain for a meeting with him, that captured media attention
and made her internationally known as the "Peace Mom."

>From the ditch to a campsite at a road intersection — which a member
of the Iraq Veterans Against the War christened "Camp Casey" — to a
larger site provided by a local property owner, she waited to ask her
question as thousands flocked to Crawford to join her vigil and to
demonstrate against the war and occupation. Her resultant celebrity
came at great personal cost. Her private life became the object of
public scrutiny and misrepresentation. She was, and continues to be,
vilified by conservative commentators and talk-show hosts and
maliciously lied about on the Internet; and she has been arrested
several times in later demonstrations and in peaceable assemblies held
to petition her government for a redress of grievances.

This intensely personal collection of Cindy Sheehan's letters,
speeches, blog entries, and short essays accomplishes several goals
despite its brevity. In passionate but clear and direct prose, it
provides an absolutely uncompromising assessment of the fundamental
failure of President Bush to justify his unconstitutional, preemptive
war against Iraq. It relates the transformation of a former Catholic
youth minister, and mother of a son killed early in the Iraq
occupation, into an internationally known public figure in the
anti-war movement. It provides a day-to-day chronicle of the August
2005 war protest outside the Bush ranch — after which the "Bring Them
Home Now Tour" journeyed from city to city for speeches and war
protests, ending with a protest that drew more than 300,000
demonstrators to the Mall in Washington, D.C., on September 24.

Sheehan pulls absolutely no punches in deeming the president and his
top aides war criminals, liars, murderers, cowards, and morally
corrupt political figures. As she reminds us, all they offer to
justify the blood on their hands is smoke and mirrors. The succession
of past excuses for the war that began with the unsupported claim that
Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" have fallen by the wayside, one
by one, as either their fatuity or falseness have been revealed.

She condemns as well the cowardice of most members of Congress, who
can neither summon the courage to assert their constitutional war
powers nor impeach a president who broke his oath to uphold and
preserve the Constitution of the United States by waging an undeclared
war and lying about the reasons for it. She also condemns the
sycophancy of the mainstream press and the political apathy of the
American public, who allow the killing in Iraq to continue and our
troops to be sacrificed for no good reason. And she makes it clear
that if the war was a mistake, the only moral remedy is to admit it
and get out of Iraq.

Especially of interest to anyone considering enlisting in the U.S.
military are the details Sheehan provides of the lies told and false
promises made by military recruiters to get the human fuel for Donald
Rumsfeld's war machine. And, once enlisted, it is difficult to get out
at the end of the contract period. Using "Stop-Loss" as a bludgeon,
the military offers only the choice to reenlist and get a bonus
payment or not to reenlist and get enslaved. Any parent whose son or
daughter is considering entering the military during the Bush
presidency should give him or her a copy of this book — and soon.

The book also puts to rest a number of falsities and malicious lies
about Sheehan that have appeared in the media and circulated on the
Internet since she rose to prominence in August. These include the
falsity that she has been divorced from her husband since Casey was
four, the allegation that she and her supporters went to Louisiana
after the hurricane Katrina disaster in order to garner publicity, the
lie that she is anti-Semitic and said her son died protecting Israel,
the claim that she has no voice of her own and is a mere puppet for
the enemies of the Bush administration, and the accusation that she is
unpatriotic and is providing aid and comfort to the enemies of the
United States.

The truth is that Cindy Sheehan and her husband were married for 28
years and raised all four of their children together. Their separation
and his filing for divorce occurred after Casey's death. The "Bring
Them Home Now Tour" went to Covington and Algiers, Louisiana, in early
September to convey more than five tons of leftover supplies from
Crawford's "Camp Casey II" site to victims of the Gulf disaster in the
absence of federal help to those cities. Tour members also stayed to
provide additional support and continuing communication with the
outside world, as well as coverage of the occupation military forces
in the disaster area. An email apparently altered by a former friend
with his own agenda contained the lie about Israel. And if love of
country means "tough love" when one believes that political leaders
are betraying its constitution, wasting its resources, and sacrificing
the members of its armed forces for reasons that they either will not
or cannot explain in plain language, then Cindy Sheehan is a greater
patriot than any of those who assail her for her criticisms of this
country's leadership.

Almost laughable is the claim that Sheehan is a puppet or tool of
others. On meeting her, one is immediately impressed with her strength
of character, the depth of her sincerity, and her absolute conviction
that she is right to do what she is doing. Her intelligence, as well
as clarity and integrity of purpose, are plainly revealed in the
writings collected in this book. As she put it (p. 116) on August 20,
"Contrary to what the mainstream media thinks, I did not just fall off
a pumpkin truck in Crawford, Texas.... I have been writing, speaking,
testifying in front of congressional committees, lobbying Congress,
and doing interviews for over a year now."

Cautioned by supporters to tone down her rhetoric to broaden her
appeal, she reacts with scorn, asking why such a big movement rose
from such a small action on August 6, 2005. Cindy Sheehan is the
street fighter of anti-war rhetoricians and her simple eloquence draws
crowds. Those who stand with her see a leader and protector. Those who
defend the war fear her outspokenness against it and the doubts that
she raises among the general public. Consequently, they vilify her.
They recognize a moral avenger when they see one. Presciently, she
wrote, "I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause," in a letter to
George Bush on November 4, 2004. In a speech she gave at Camp Casey on
August 24, 2005, she said (p. 131) that if Casey were to have anything
to say to George Bush for sending him to his death it would be, "You
didn't know what you were getting into."

Quite.

Sam Bostaph is Chairman of the economics department at The University
of Dallas.

Mother Cindy Sheehan & Son Casey, Iraq War - George W. Bush's ...
Ms. Sheehan has vowed to camp out on the spot until Mr. Bush agrees to meet with
her, even if it means spending all of August under a broiling sun by the ...
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