Posted on 08/06/2005 5:15:28 PM PDT by markomalley
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - The angry mother of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in Iraq.
Supported by more than 50 demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her son!" Cindy Sheehan told reporters: "I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?'" Sheehan, 48, didn't get to see Bush, but did talk about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went out to hear her concerns.
Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004. He was an Army specialist, a Humvee mechanic.
"They (the advisers) said we are in Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that the world's a better place with Saddam gone and that we're making the world a safer place with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone interview after the meeting.
"They were very respectful. They were nice men. I told them Iraq was not a threat to the United States and that now people are dead for nothing. I told them I wouldn't leave until I talked to George Bush."
She said Hagin told her, "I want to assure you that he (Bush) really does care."
"And I said if he does care, why doesn't he come out and talk to me."
Sheehan arrived in Crawford aboard a bus painted red, white and blue and emblazoned with the words, "Impeachment Tour." Sheehan, from Vacaville, Calif., had been attending a Veterans for Peace convention in Dallas.
The bus, trailed by about 20 cars of protesters and reporters, drove at about 15 mph toward Bush's ranch. After several miles, they parked the vehicles and began to march, in stifling heat, farther down the narrow country road.
Flanked by miles of pasture, Sheehan spoke with reporters while clutching two photographs, one of her son in uniform, and the other, a baby picture, when he was seven months old.
She said she decided to come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a noble cause and that the mission must be completed.
"I want to ask the president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Last week, you said my son died for a noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is?"
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said response that Bush also wants the troops to return home safely.
"Many of the hundreds of families the president has met with know their loved one died for a noble cause and that the best way to honor their sacrifice is to complete the mission," Duffy said.
"It is a message the president has heard time and again from those he has met with and comforted. Like all Americans, he wants the troops home as soon as possible."
The group marched about a half-mile before local law enforcement officials stopped them at a bend in the road, still four to five miles from the ranch's entrance. Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office said the group was stopped because some marchers ignored instructions to walk in the ditch beside the road, not on the road.
"If they won't cooperate, we won't," Vanek said.
Saddam Hussein?
Harming others for personal gain or agenda?
Yeah... that fits the bill..... for both of them.
Riding on an Impeach Bush bus and you think Pres Bush could have soothed her anger? I rather think she was angry before her son (may he RIP) was killed. She is using his death as her angry platform now.
Hey, I am not taking up for her............ I agree with all your all saying. Forgive me for I was WRONG!!!!!!!!!
Riding on an Impeach Bush bus and you think Pres Bush could have soothed her anger? I rather think she was angry before her son (may he RIP) was killed. She is using his death as her angry platform now.
Hey, I am not taking up for her............ I agree with all your all saying. Forgive me for I was WRONG!!!!!!!!!
Yep. Saddam fits all your definitions. I agree.
"Vacaville, CA" Well, Mapquest puts that on Rte. 80 halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. I'm bettin' she's seen her share of protests.
President Bush would. it's a terrible thing to loose your child in this manner. I would give her the benefit of doubt. Hopefully she will the see the light and turn her anger against the people who killed her child
No doubt. These parents and loved ones really need to consider how they're conducting themselves. When they do this, they lend aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war. Is that what their son would have wanted?
Then you agree? She is evil.
Evil may have its gradient, but evil itself is not hard to obtain.
Sorry. I disagree about degrees of evil. Just as I believe there are no degrees of 'life'. It is or it isn't. Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this point. Don't want to argue with you.
Shes already had one personal meeting with Bush and she bad mouthed him afterward. And she thinks he should meet with her AGAIN in Crawford??? I dont blame Bush for not speaking with her. She is using her sons death to try to set Bush up so she can find fault in him once again. It doesnt matter what Bush does, they will search for any reason to bash him. I wish they would leave him alone, especially when he is in Crawford trying to rest.
Yeah, I did. I'll go read in again. BRB.
She's a despicable, anti-war Nazi ***ch wh***
And that's putting it kindly. She'll look for the real killers like O.J. Simpson does on the golf courses.
Less than evil, OK. But there are people who are less than evil but much worse than misguided. Calling for Bush's impeachment isn't simply misguided. It is vicious, childish, and irresponsible.
The level of harm you obtain (hitler vs. joe-suicide-bomber) matters little, agreed.
She has used her sons death to catapult her sick, harmful and narcissistic agenda into the public forum with the complete intention to enslave each of us to her will.
The fact that she will never succeed does not reduce her evil status.
I try to feel sorry for this woman because of the loss of her son but my hatred for the Liberal mind and the idiots like her that fall for it overshoots my sympathy.
Where is the father?
Moreover, he seems to be an expert on arms and munitions because he also said "Considering it took Iraq three years to shoot down one of our unmanned planes, I hardly think they have the capability to threaten us."
An interesting web that's forming here.
Huh. Well I didn't see it but I'll take your word on it since I thought he did meet with the parents.
Pat Sheehan is mentioned in the first article I linked to in #97.
Thanks for posting that. As for Ms. Sheehan's meeting with President Bush I have to wonder how the heck she saw in him what she describes. My husband and I both met the President and he came across as sensitive and understanding about the stress involved with having a loved one deployed. I would go so far as to say that he appeared to be one of the kindest people I have ever met.
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