On the day that memorializes U.S. soldiers who died in service of our country, Cindy Sheehan, one of America's most famous Iraq War military mothers, made the difficult decision to step away from the anti-war movement, and to return home.
Cindy painfully writes at DailyKos:
"The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think..."Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people...
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost...
"This is my resignation letter as the 'face' of the American anti-war movement."
Cindy, of course, is the mother of 24-year-old US Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, a Humvee mechanic, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. He had been in Iraq just five days when he was felled by an enemy bullet to his head.
As I wrote when I reviewed her 2006 book "Peace Mom, Cindy Sheehan's story is the classic and yet, ancient, account of a plain-spoken, naive, single-minded crusader who, spurred by an event, arose from the common masses to fill a desperate void in leadership.
Before Casey's death, Cindy, who had been a Catholic youth leader for seven years, held a vague awareness that the Iraq War was "immoral and illegal."
After Casey Sheehan's Death
After Casey's death and an ensuing family "meeting" with a callous George Bush, Cindy's shock and heightened awareness turned to fury over the Iraq War.
In summer 2005, Cindy requested to meet again with President Bush, and decided to camp outside the President's Crawford, Texas ranch until that meeting. Mr. Bush stubbornly refused to meet with her.
As a result, Camp Casey sparked the bona fide anti-Iraq War movement. During its remarkable 26 days, Camp Casey attracted 15,000 Americans, including many celebrities and public figures, who spontaneously came to be part of Cindy's protest against the Iraq War. And Cindy met with the likes of Sen. John McCain, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, now House Speaker.
Like all great leaders, Cindy has paid a steep personal price for her inspiring activism: a divorce, estrangement from family and friends, loss of a sense of home.
And like all great leaders, the very attributes that fueled Cindy's strong, visionary leadership... astonishing courage, strong ego and confidence, painful honesty, deep emotions... are the same qualities that caused her to clash at collaboration with other liberals, anti-war leaders and some Democratic leaders.
Cindy Sheehan is a woman of passionately held ideals. She is not a woman of pragmatic politics or the necessary compromises of democracy.
And so, exhausted and disillusioned, Cindy leaves the anti-Iraq War movement "before it totally consumes me or any more people that I love and the rest of my resources."
Wrote the Rev. Jesse Jackson about Cindy Sheehan:
"Cindy Sheehan is a witness in the great tradition of Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Harriet Tubman."
Love Her or Hate Her: Cindy Tells the Unpopular Truth
As I wrote in my review of "Peace Mom":
"Cindy tells it like it is. No holds barred. That's her beauty as a reformer and activist. And that's why her unbridled honesty scares so many. Love her or hate her... she's telling the truth. "
I deeply admire Cindy Sheehan and her brave example of principled, passionate activism.
But I also believe that Cindy is correct: Camp Casey has served its purpose.
The Iraq War will inevitably wind down as the 2008 elections draw near. Congressional Republicans have made clear to George Bush that his war has their support only until their reelection campaigns get underway in late 2007.
It's time for Cindy to go home and enjoy her loved ones... and rest-up for when the American liberal movement desperately needs her leadership once again.
God bless you, Cindy. You will be missed...
Related Reading
Book Review: "Peace Mom" by Cindy Sheehan
Iraq War Results & Statistics as of May 16, 2007
John Kerry's Famed 1971 Testimony on Vietnam: "How Do You Ask a Man to be the Last Man to Die for a Mistake?"
Comments
You lied when you wrote your title for this piece. It should be, “Cindy Sheehan Resigns from Pro-war Democrats”.
What Cindy did to her son’s name is a disgrace. She acted like this out of guilt. Either she did not pay enough attention to him while he was growing up or she blames herself for his death and felt the need to take it out on the greatest president we ever had.
She’s a disgrace and a liar.Her Son was a brave young man who wrote willingly of his desire to serve.Cindy Sheehan did in fact embrace President Bush and comment most favorably on him after their first meeting.Her mind seemed to be poisoned both by grief,understandably, and the Anti-America movement within her own country.
I so much agree with her. After my husband retired from the military, i thought I was done with this hell called Iraq War.
My happiness was only supposed to last for a short time since now my son is joining the military and of course is going to Iraq like his father did before. I am so sick of this county, they way it has been ran. It’s not that I don’t love hte USA, I am sick and tired of fighting wars, we should not get our selfes into.
Patty