August 18, 2005
YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT, GET OFF MY BIKE?
Whatever you think of Cindy Sheehan's politics, you've got to grant her this: She supports her convictions unlike most others. Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old soldier who was killed last year in Iraq. This month, she followed President George W. Bush to his home in Crawford, Texas, and vowed to camp nearby until he emerges to meet with her and answer a simple question: Why did her son have to die?
As U.S. support for this farce of a war in Iraq falters, Sheehan has come to symbolize the wide chasm between the war's fervent supporters and its demonized critics. The symbolism is potent. On one hand, there is a grieving mother, standing on a blistering Texas roadside, making a plea for straight talk. On the other, there is a president who continues his familiar line, that freedom's on the march and that we need to stay the course. Though President George W. Bush has said he sympathizes with Sheehan, he has declined to meet with her. Instead, he cites his need to stay healthy and get his exercise while on five weeks worth of vacation. "I've got a life to live and will do so," Bush says.
Casey Sheehan also had a life to live. He committed it--foolishly, it turned out--to President George W. Bush's farce of a war... an unprecedented, discretionary attack, launched without due justification by the President of the United States and without critical oversight by the United States Congress. In Cindy Sheehan's own words:
"This is George Bush's accountability moment. That's why I'm here. The mainstream media aren't holding him accountable. Neither is Congress. So I'm not leaving Crawford until he's held accountable. It's ironic, given the attacks leveled at me recently, how some in the media are so quick to scrutinize ó and distort ó the words and actions of a grieving mother but not the words and actions of the president of the United States."
Sheehan has been fiercely attacked by conservative pundits. This was to be expected. The Bush team and its supporters are masters of the art of attacking the questioner instead of addressing the merits of the question. It must be said that the grieving mother has made some intemperate statements. Bereaved people can be that way (go figure). Cooler heads should understand this.
Certainly, though, Sheehan's reported remarks about a "neo-con agenda to benefit Israel" are worth noting and rebutting. Some of her statements seem to mirror the talking points of left-leaning groups. Such baggage will limit her credibility and efficacy among those who don't already agree with her. Brave and articulate though she is, Sheehan might not be the best spokesperson for her cause.
None of that, however, changes the fact that Cindy Sheehan's central question deserves a reasonable and serious reply. But her question remains notably, contemptibly unanswered. The chance that George W. Bush will actually sacrifice a bike ride or jog to meet Sheehan approximate a snowball's surviving a hot Crawford, Texas, afternoon. Even if by some miracle he consented to a meeting, the chance is even smaller that Bush would actually address her question. He's never shown the inclination or the ability.
The President will soon end his vacation, and Cindy Sheehan will fade from view. In other words, this, too, shall pass. But the truth remains. The President of the United States dragged the nation into a horrid, badly bungled, hugely expensive and ill-justified farce of a war. For this, he must be held to account. For her attempts to accomplish that, one mother deserves our thanks.
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Copyright 2005, The Daily Camera and Boulder Publishing, LLC.
Posted by Mikal at August 18, 2005 8:31 AM
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