In Defense of Cindy Sheehan
by Charles Coughlin
If an American mom lost her son at a dangerous intersection and she began lobbying politicians to install a traffic light and criticizing politicians who dragged their feet, there would be little controversy surrounding her and most people would praise her for trying to save lives.
In the case of Cindy Sheehan, the issue is the Iraq War. Cindy and her supporters consider that war completely unnecessary. It never was part of the “war on terror.” Saddam Hussein considered al Qaeda a threat to his authority and he kept al Qaeda out of Iraq. Since Bush’s war on Iraq, al Qaeda has reportedly moved into Iraq to recruit people. Bush has made things worse.
The people attacking Cindy Sheehan include naive Republicans who can’t admit that George Bush has lied the United States into an unjust war.
The people leading the attack on Cindy never admit that the REAL issue is the legitimacy of the Iraq War. Instead, these dishonest talk radio hacks change the subject. They try to pretend that any criticism of Bush is undermining the “war effort.” They also never draw a line between the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. To the neocons, there is only one war. To most honest ordinary Americans, there are TWO completely different wars.
The truth is that the Iraq War is completely unjustified. Every death in Iraq was a waste. There is no noble goal in Iraq. It’s none of our business who runs Iraq and George Bush deserves to be impeached for lying us into that war. Ambassador Joe Wilson and the Downing Street Memos have proven the war was based on deliberate lies.
So what should a parent do when a politician gets their son killed in an unjust war? Sit around and pretend nothing bad has happened. Let those politicians feed more young Americans into a war to make Halliburton richer and to soothe Israeli paranoia about its neighbors?
Once you realize that your son has died in an unjust war, you have a moral obligation to try your hardest to end the unjust war and to prevent anyone else’s son being killed. Cindy Sheehan is taking the best possible course of action. She’s trying to spare other mothers the terrific pain that she has suffered.
It would be a complete disaster for George Bush and the neocons if this realization spreads throughout America so some skunk (possibly Karl Rove) in the neocon ranks came up with the idea of smearing Cindy as a top priority. The neocon talk show hacks avoid any debate on whether the Iraq War is right or wrong, but they will endlessly call Cindy Sheehan a “nut” and try to portray her as a militant leftist because most of the people active in the anti-war movement are leftists.
The neocons have been going over everything Cindy has said with a magnifying glass trying to discredit her. Numerous times they have taken things she said OUT OF CONTEXT to try to make her look like a “nut.” Way to go, talk show hacks. Beat up that poor mom who lost a son in Bush’s illegitimate war.
The truth is still the truth. The Iraq War is wrong. Bush and his neocon buddies lied us into the war. The entire Bush administration should be impeached. Cindy Sheehan and any other parent who lost a child in the Iraq War should be protesting outside the White House or Bush’s ranch to end this war.
Perhaps, the biggest question surrounding the Iraq War is: Where are all the Republicans with a conscience? Why is it always just Pat Buchanan and a very few others who are willing to oppose Bush when he’s wrong? Where are the conservative talk radio hosts willing to admit that the Iraq War was wrong and it looks like Bush lied us into it? Only one Republican talk radio host Charles Goyette in Phoenix appeared to have a conscience. He questioned the flimsy arguments made in favor of war. He was right, and, if the Republican Party had listened to him, they wouldn’t be staring at an upcoming train wreck in the form of the 2006 elections. Mr. Goyette was treated worse than Cindy Sheehan by the neocons. He lost his job on the Clear Channel radio network and had to find a radio station a little less biased for his talk show.