Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/28/sheehan/
Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest
POSTED: 10:55 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
Story Highlights Sheehan: My son "did indeed die for nothing"
She is upset that Democrats and anti-war politicians can't end Iraq war
She is exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote
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(CNN) -- Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who became an anti-war leader after her son was killed in Iraq, declared Monday she was walking away from the peace movement.
She said her son died "for nothing."
Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.
While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.
But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.
She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."
Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad. His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.
But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention fatlady," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."
"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.
"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."
Cindy Sheehan's sister, DeDe Miller, told CNN that the group would continue working for humanitarian causes, but drop its involvement in the anti-war movement. As for her sister's letter, Miller said, "She cried for quite a bit after writing it."
Sheehan warned that the United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland," and that onetime allies among Bush's Democratic opposition turned on her when she began trying to hold them accountable for bringing the 4-year-old war to a close.
In the meantime, she said her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.
"I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble."
Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest
POSTED: 10:55 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
Story Highlights Sheehan: My son "did indeed die for nothing"
She is upset that Democrats and anti-war politicians can't end Iraq war
She is exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote
Adjust font size:
(CNN) -- Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who became an anti-war leader after her son was killed in Iraq, declared Monday she was walking away from the peace movement.
She said her son died "for nothing."
Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.
While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.
But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.
She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."
Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad. His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.
But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention fatlady," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."
"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.
"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."
Cindy Sheehan's sister, DeDe Miller, told CNN that the group would continue working for humanitarian causes, but drop its involvement in the anti-war movement. As for her sister's letter, Miller said, "She cried for quite a bit after writing it."
Sheehan warned that the United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland," and that onetime allies among Bush's Democratic opposition turned on her when she began trying to hold them accountable for bringing the 4-year-old war to a close.
In the meantime, she said her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.
"I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble."
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I think this thread is a perfect example of why Sheehan gave up. I have been accused of dishonoring the dead, of being incontinent, of not knowing when to shut up, that I have ulterior motives, that I have said things in the past on unrelated issues. And it all stemmed from my original comment,
"Does a soldier die for nothing? Every one fights for his brother in arms. That is certainly something. But Bigger picture, he wouldn't have to die fighting for his brother in arms if we weren't fighting for the freedom of Iraq or whatever reason sounds good today. That, my friends, is dying for nothing."0 -
quote:Originally posted by OJMayo
think of all those american christians who died fighting hitler....for nothing. germamy was no threat to america. i dont see why we should have wasted american soldiers over nothing.
Sounds like a great position..........except Germany declared war on us0 -
quote:United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland,"
Seems to me she concluded what many here, including me, have concluded.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Jgreen
or whatever reason sounds good today. That, my friends, is dying for nothing."
This is the part that got me. It seems that people who form opinions on this war based solely on what's being reported in various media outlets is a complete idiot. If you don't take into consideration the opinions of our service men and women about why we're there, you're not getting the whole picture.
If you don't support the war, you can't support the troops and I don't believe anyone who says otherwise. Unless you've been there and done that, you can't possibly know what they are feeling. Ask any service member and they'll tell you that the mission becomes you. This war is part of the men and women serving over there. Sure they want to come home, but they want to come home when the job is done right and won't have to do it again. If you think these Islamic terrorists aren't worse than Nazis in the 30's and 40's, you need to pull your head out of the sand and come to reality. They are much worse and the problem is that they haven't even begun to show their true colors. Their vision of the destruction of the US and Israel is far greater than 9/11. That was scary enough for me and I want it stopped before I see anything worse.
I appologize for the rant.0 -
I wish more people were protesting this misbegotten war, as Cindy Sheehan has done.
Maybe the nitwit Bush would proceed to end this disaster if he had 400,000 people demonstrating outside the White House, as Nixon had.0 -
Heff's Quote:
I don't care who or what is in the White House, no one in the armed forces deserves to have any of that connected to their service or used as a footnote to their death while serving, and you should be ashamed to have brought it into the argument.
When it comes to dead soldiers, I expect you to be man enough to honor the fallen without the democratic or republican party line connected to the war. It is insulting to Casey and everyone who ever wore a uniform, and you're either too young or to indoctrinated by politics to understand it.
And, who decides when a war is "worth it"? Are you upset the president didn't call you and ask you first? The majority of Americans supported the war until it became a mismanaged fiasco. How soon we forget.
This reflects a problem that we have in this country called a "lack of respect!"
When a majority elects a leader or group of leaders, Congress, and a war is declared or a conflict is started it is fine to disagree. But then line up and become a team player and support the nation and its soldiers during the conflict. Thats showing respect for the nation and its flag.
Just because I don't agree with the war doesn't give me the right to do what the members of the westboro bapitist church do when they protest at the funeral of a fallen soldier and say God Hates People that have an alternative lifestyle therefore God is punishing us by killing our soldiers. We all need to show "Respect" for our troops and leaders and back them up until this conflict is over.
As a Patriot Guard I go and stand at their graves and support their families and show my respect by honoring them.
It is very hard to win a war and be successfull when you are being shot in the back by your own people when you are trying to protect their freedom.[:0][:0]0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
I wish more people were protesting this misbegotten war, as Cindy Sheehan has done.
Good to know who stands with whom.0 -
Sheehan said....."I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey......"
Remember the picture of her and Jesse Jackson?
I hope she has the hots for Jesse Jackson and is off stalking him.[:)]0
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