the summer of sheehan

The whole Cindy Sheehan saga is truly amazing to me. I can imagine few actions more courageous and self-sacrificing than hers.

Of course, as with any other single individual, I don't necessarily agree with every statement that comes from her mouth, but I do think that the anti-war movement is incredibly lucky to have found such a sincere and compelling spokesperson who is neither a Hollywood actor or a musician.

For some reason, this country's right wingers continue to shoot themselves in the foot in an attempt to "deal" with her though.

To begin with, if Bush had any sense whatsoever, he'd have called her in for a private meeting days ago. The president could have been polite, sincere, and resolute with her and he'd have walked away scoring mucho political capital. Instead, he's stonewalled her and allowed the chorus around her to grow.

Meanwhile, the right-wing media has questioned her motives and accused her of telling a fraudulent story, (gasp!) changing her opinion and colluding with or being a pawn of fanatical left-wing organizations and individuals like (bigger gasp!) moveon.org and (biggest gasp!!!) Michael Moore.

First off, changing your mind is no crime, sin, or mistake. In fact, the administration might do well to consider this strategy someday.

Secondly, Cindy Sheehan is a regular person, a mom whose son died in a war that she did not agree with. Noone could have predicted how this story was going to play out. Just as they did with the probably illegal smear tactics of administration critic Joe Wilson, the right wing machine is trying to find a way to bring down the messenger, in an attempt to draw attention away from the message.

Sheehan has allied herself with these anti-war groups and individuals on the basis of their opposition to the war. I hate to sound elementary, but just because you agree with someone about one issue that doesn't mean that you agree with them about every one.

In her most recent post to the Huffington Post blog, Sheehan writes:

Even after my repeated attempts to keep the focus of my protest on the war, the Drudge Report and others continue to try to make the issue about me. But I am not the issue. The issue is a disastrous war that's killing our sons and daughters and making our country less secure. They attack me because they can no longer defend this war.

I've come to Crawford to bring to the president's doorstep the harsh realities of a war he's been trying so hard to avoid. But no matter what they say or how many shotguns they fire or how many crosses they destroy, they're not going to stop me from speaking out about a war that needlessly killed my son.