Ahhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon

US anti-war mother held at rally

About Cindy Sheehan
By David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Speech

Saturday 24 September 2005

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092405B.shtml

I came to know Cindy Sheehan in May, and - like most people - I immediately loved her. She is a very friendly and loving person, and you cannot work on a project with her without being constantly reminded of what it is all about, how important it is, how right it is.

Cindy does not talk about peace movement strategy as if she were working on any old project. She talks about the urgent need to end the vile crimes of the greedy bastards who sent her son to die so that they could grow rich on his flesh and blood. This is Cindy's language that I am repeating.

Cindy's directness is - for many people - not off-putting when she speaks it, because it is so recognizably honest. She presents her personal story and her analysis of the war with absolutely no fear. She gives us, in fact, the truth without varnish. And last month she proved that even the corporate media can be attracted to such confrontational truth in a way that it never is attracted to the sort of moderate muddle more often counseled by PR pros and political advisors.

Early on during her protest in Texas, Cindy had a reporter tell her that her story was only taking off because it was a slow news week. She asked whether they thought two dozen American kids dying in Iraq was slow news. "Well, you know what I mean," came the response. "No, I don't," said Cindy. And she didn't, and she didn't want to learn to.

Cindy's son, Casey, was killed on April 4, the same date on which the person Cindy quotes more than any other was assassinated: Martin Luther King Jr. Like King, Cindy asks us to refuse to be comfortable with accepted and respectable crimes against humanity. Cindy does not ask politely why the war isn't run better. She asks why Bush does not encourage his daughters to go.

The first place I heard Cindy give a speech was at the University of DC on June 3rd. She said then that while 5 Republicans had voted for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's amendment calling for an exit strategy, 40 percent of the Democrats in the House had not. Woolsey asked one why they didn't vote with her, Cindy said, and they told her that they voted "No" out of respect for those (Americans) who had died.

"That's the talk of the bastards who got us into this war," Cindy said. Cindy spoke calmly and deliberately, but always referred to the president as "the lying bastard."

"The evidence is overwhelming," she said, "that the lying bastard lied about the justification for invading Iraq. Now that the smoking gun is burning in our hands, we need a vote for articles of impeachment."

We still don't have that, but on June 16th, Congressman John Conyers held hearings, and we activists held a rally at the White House to call attention to the Downing Street Memo, to which Cindy was referring. One of the four witnesses to testify at that hearing was Cindy Sheehan. She spoke powerfully of how it felt to see clear evidence that Bush had lied about the reasons he sent her son to die.

That moment in mid-June was a high-point in media coverage of questioning of Bush's war lies, but it didn't come anywhere near what we dreamed of. It didn't approach the sort of saturation coverage that is generally reserved for a Michael Jackson trial or a missing teenage white girl. Action progressed in Congress, but the media turned away. The Washington Post published an article mocking Congressman Conyers' hearings and editorialized that the Downing Street Memo showed nothing new. Thousands of people e-mailed and phoned to complain, and some held a protest at the Post's offices. The Post reversed course and printed a front page article. The leader of the protest down on 15th Street was Cindy Sheehan.

Two months later, what we'd all dreamed of happened: an unprecedented progressive breakthrough into the mainstream echo chamber. This came when Cindy decided to walk up to Bush's ranch and try to get herself arrested. This was Cindy's idea. Various organizations that were later accused of manipulating her would have certainly advised against this. She dragged a number of them into clearer opposition to the war, and then produced for them the largest events they'd ever been part of. She drove the agenda, not the other way around. And she and those inspired by her created in Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, a community of activists who returned to their communities around the country ready to work as passionately as Cindy to end this war.

And when the fame came, the only thing Cindy lost was the cursing. She took advice, but she stuck to her guns. And she gracefully handled a flood of unsolicited recommendations and proposals, bitter petty rivalries, right-wing smear campaigns, family emergencies, and grueling hours. Through all of this she became the leader of a movement, and did so in a way that few others could have handled. Cindy demanded in a voice loud enough for the nation to hear that the war end immediately. And Cindy is able to do this without seeming irrationally impatient: she makes clear that she does not want a single additional mother to go through what she has.

While working the corporate media, Cindy has never stopped criticizing it, and has never dropped her focus on the value of independent and progressive media on the radio and internet. Cindy's combative approach has forced the anti-war movement onto the radar of major media conglomerates that profit from war. If they give honest coverage to the events of this coming weekend, much of the credit for that must go to Cindy Sheehan.

David Swanson was the communications coordinator for ACORN from 2000 to 2003 and is now media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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Patriotic Dissent
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Speech

Saturday 24 September 2005

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092405Y.shtml

Ahhhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon!

As we stand here on the grounds of a monument that is dedicated to the Father of our Country, George Washington, we are reminded that he was well known for the apocryphal stories of never being able to tell a lie. I find it so ironic that there is another man here named George who stays in this town between vacations, and he seems to never be able to tell the truth. It is tragic for us that our bookend presidents named George have two completely different relationships with honesty.

I also find it ironic and heartbreaking that my son, Casey, who was a brave person, tall and proud, who loved his country and was honest beyond measure, could be sent to his death by someone who is even too cowardly to meet with a broken-hearted mom, let alone go and fight in the illegal and immoral war of his generation. We are losing our best and our brightest in a country that we are destroying, that was no threat to the United States of America. Iraq was and still is no danger to our safety and security, or to our way of life. The weapons of mass destruction and mass deception reside in this town: they are the neocons who pull the strings and the members of Congress who have loosened the purse strings with reckless abandon and have practically given George and company a blank check to run our country into monetary and moral bankruptcy. We are out here in force today to take our country back and restore true democracy and sanity to our political process. The time is now, and we are here because we love our country, and we won't let the reckless maniacs destroy her any further.

We, as a young colony of Great Britain, broke from another tyrant, King George the Third. Well, I wish our George the Third were here today to see us out here in force protesting against his war and against his murderous policies. George is not here, though, because he is out galavanting around the country somewhere pretending that he cares about the people who are in the path of hurricane Rita. We know that he cares nothing for the people of America: Katrina, Iraq, and his idiotic response to 9/11 are evidence of that. He is just out and about play-acting like a President whose country is in crisis, just like he pretends to be a Commander in Chief and a Cowboy (I wonder if before he took off to Texas or Colorado or wherever he went, he watched a movie like Independence Day to see how that other fake president acted?). The reason he is out today is that his handlers told him that he got a little flak for playing golf and eating birthday cake with Senator McCain while some of his employers were hanging off rooftops and treetops in New Orleans. He swaggers around arrogantly like he is a macho dictatorial tyrant who doesn't have to answer to his employers, the people of the United States of America. Those days are over George, we are here today to tell you that we are a majority and we will never rest until you bring our young people home from the Middle East, and until you start putting money into rebuilding OUR communities: the ones natural disasters destroy with your help, and the ones which your callous and racist war economy are decimating. We won't allow you to take anymore money out of social programs to finance Halliburton to rebuild the Gulf States: there is no money. Our bank account is empty. George, this is our rainy day and you have failed us miserably. Stop pouring money into the pockets of the war profiteers and into building permanent bases in Iraq ... It is time to bring our billions of dollars home from Iraq too!!!

One thing the Camp Casey movement that hunkered down in Crawford, Texas, this past August taught us is that we the people of America have the power and we can and should name our national policy and make sure it is carried out. I constantly get asked if we are making a difference and if we think (like we're naīve boobs) that we will actually stop the war. Well, looking back at how Vietnam was ended and looking back in the history of our country, most notably in the suffragette, union, and civil rights movements, we the people are the only ones who have been able to transform history and affect true and lasting change here in America: so to those people who question if we are making a difference: I tell them to go back to school and read their history books!! And another thing these questioners overlook is that WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!! And we are here to tell the media, Congress, and this criminal and criminally negligent administration: WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!!!

We in the peace movement need to agree on one thing: yes we need an exit plan, but it is not a strategy, it is a command. The command should be: have all of our military personnel and paid killer mercenaries out of Iraq within 6 months, and the generals carry out the command. Simple, it's not brain surgery, and I think it is so easy even George Bush can sign the order. We can't give the homicidal maniacs any wiggle room or long-term strategy sessions. For one thing, when our leaders strategize, we are put in even more jeopardy - they have proven that they are not too bright or even a little compassionate. But the most important thing is that people die every day in Iraq for absolutely no reason and for lies. We have to say NOW because the people on the other side are saying NEVER. We can't compromise, we can't say please, and we can't retreat. If we do, our country is doomed. We have to honor the sacrifices of our loved ones by completing the mission of peace and justice. It is time. Bring our troops home, NOW!
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When Rose Met Cindy: The Case against the War in Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK

Friday 23 September 2005

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092505D.shtml

On both sides of the Atlantic, two mothers who lost sons in Iraq have launched campaigns to end the conflict. One camped outside George Bush's ranch. The other stood in the general election. This week, they came face to face for the first time. Andrew Buncombe reports.

Along the sunbaked sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue came the sound of singing. It was music from an earlier generation, but as relevant now as it ever was. "All we are saying is give peace a chance," chanted the group of demonstrators as they made their way to the north-west gates of the White House. "All we are saying is give peace chance."

At the head of the huddled group was Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year and whose campaign to demand an explanation for the war from President George Bush took her to the gates of his Crawford ranch, made headlines around the world and - seemingly almost single-handedly - re-energised the US peace movement. At her side was Rose Gentle, a woman whose son, Gordon, was also killed in Iraq and who has launched a similarly relentless campaign to demand answers from Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"It's exciting to be here, to let George Bush know what we think about the war," Mrs. Gentle said moments afterwards, standing at the junction with 17th Street, carrying a photograph of her son wearing his uniform of Royal Highland Fusiliers. Asked if she thought he would have approved of her campaign, she glanced at the photograph of the young man, 19 years old, and replied: "Gordon would have wanted this. His pals are still there [in Iraq] and he would have wanted them home safe. They still keep in touch."

She added: "Those young boys don't know who's with them or who's against them. People think we are against the troops but we are for them - we want them home safe. Once they're dead, the [authorities] don't want to know them. For a 19-year-old with just 24 weeks basic training to be sent to Iraq ..."

Had the US and Britain not invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003 it is unlikely that Mrs. Sheehan, 48, from Vacaville, California, and Mrs. Gentle, 40, from the depressed Glasgow suburb of Pollok, would ever have had reason to know each other. As it is, they and many of the other demonstrators, who have this week made their way to the US capital after a tour that has taken them to 51 cities in 28 states, share a terrible bond.

Mrs. Sheehan's 24-year-old son was killed in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City on 4 April when his unit, the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Gordon Gentle was killed by a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra on 28 June last year, the day the US and Britain purportedly handed back control of the country to an Iraqi government.

"We have been in e-mail contact for months but this is the first time we have met," Mrs. Sheehan said of Mrs. Gentle as she later stood in the sunshine on the National Mall, helping set up a "Camp Casey" memorial within view of the Capitol Building. "It helps [meeting the other people who have lost loved ones]. They really are the only people who know what I'm going through."

Mrs. Sheehan said she would like to accept Mrs. Gentle's invitation to tour the UK and share her message with British audiences. It was important that the anti-war message was as loudly heard in Britain as the US because "they have troops in Iraq. They are part of it", she told The Independent.

The families' descent upon Washington to participate in three days of anti-war protests this weekend organised by the group United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) comes at a time when public support in the US for the war stands at an all-time low. A recent poll conducted for The New York Times suggested that only 44 per cent of Americans now believe the invasion of Iraq was the correct thing to do. Around 80 per cent are concerned that the spiralling costs of the occupation are diverting resources needed in the US.

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Saturdays war protest draws 100,000-150,000 —Randi Roads Show, Mon Sep 26 20:37