your village voice

Dead Soldier's Mom Waits For Bush

It seems with the falling poll numbers last month and an increasingly violent insurgency, the War in Iraq is now more of a thorn in Bush's side than a triumph of his War On Terror strategy. When he arrived home in Crawford, TX, protestor Cindy Sheehan was waiting for him:

The mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., is camping near US president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She's set up on a narrow strip of land between the hardtop of Prairie Chapel Road and a drainage ditch.

"I plan on staying here the entire month of August or until he comes out to talk to me," she says. Bush is spending five weeks at his ranch.

Spc. Casey Sheehan, 24, was killed in Baghdad on April 4, 2004, five days after he arrived in Iraq. An Eagle Scout who trained as a Humvee mechanic, he volunteered to help bring in soldiers wounded in an ambush. He died after his convoy came under attack.

Bush met with the Sheehan family and other families of fallen troops in June 2004 at Fort Lewis near Seattle. Cindy Sheehan has said she didn't get across to Bush how misguided she believes his policies are, so she decided to act against him.

Sheehan has been involved in protests against Bush since last year. She founded Gold Star Families for Peace, described on its Web site as made up of "families of soldiers who have died as a result of war." She is being supported by the Crawford Peace House, which has facilitated about two dozen protests in the town since 2002.

Cindy epitomizes the tenacity US citizens need to have if they are going to have any influence on ending this war. Only its US citizens can end a US war before it becomes too late to extricate from the situation. Let us all help Cindy in her efforts.

If you have a loved one currently in active service in Iraq, donate to or become a member of Gold Star Families For Peace. If you want to protest or help current Crawford protestors, check out the Crawford Peace House.

posted by the prisoner @ 9:27:00 AM