Deploying Cindy's Antiwar Army [FR's DC Chapter counterprotest mentioned]

Washington Post ^ | August 18, 2005 | Dana Milbank

[Jim Robinson]

It was to have been a silent vigil outside the White House last night in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star Mother-turned-antiwar activist. But the 500 demonstrators were not the sort to be silenced.

"Meet with Cindy!" they chanted. "Tell her the truth! . . . This war was for oil! . . . End the war now!"

"Cindy Sheehan," organizer Karen Bradley shouted into a megaphone, "you are an inspiration to us all!"

As Sheehan, mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, camps out near President Bush's ranch in Texas this month in symbolic protest, foes of the war see the chance to achieve something that has eluded them for two years: galvanizing a mass antiwar movement. Sheehan, they say hopefully, could be their Rosa Parks.

Bradley, a volunteer for the liberal group MoveOn.org, which coordinated about 1,600 candlelight vigils across the country last night for Sheehan, certainly thinks so. "We've been missing this galvanizing, iconic figure," said Bradley, who lost a child nine years ago, to illness. "I think all the mothers of the world are going to come out and say, 'Enough.' "

That's what worries Kevin Pannell, whose knot of a dozen conservative counterdemonstrators was outnumbered 50 to 1 on Pennsylvania Avenue last night. Pannell, part of the Army's First Cavalry Division, lost both calves in Iraq last year when his patrol was ambushed in a grenade attack. He said he had never been to a political rally before, but he is worried about Sheehan's ability to spark an antiwar movement.

"She's stirred up a wasps' nest," he said, leaning on a flagpole to support his prosthetic legs. "It's definitely getting bigger. They're getting a little out of hand."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

More than 50 vigils were held last night in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, who is camped outside President Bush’s ranch over her son’s death in Iraq. Sara Burke of Dorchester joined about 75 people at Wollaston Beach in Quincy. (Globe Photo/ Erik Jacobs)

….In a brief telephone interview from the Crawford protest site, Sheehan called the protest turnout ''overwhelming and amazing."

''I think it happened because America was ready," Sheehan said. ''The kindling was there; it just needed a spark. This definitely is a mainstream thing, normal Americans who know this war is a mistake and want it to be over. Enough is enough."

………''And it didn't hurt that the White House press corps was just sitting around Crawford," Lessin said of the flood of publicity Sheehan has received. ''But seriously, I think that America was ready to hear this."

Sheehan said she has no grand plans for her impromptu protest movement beyond staying in Crawford until she either meets with Bush or he goes back to Washington. ''We are just going day by day," she said. ''It's an organic thing that's really taken on a life of its own."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/18/vigils_across_state_nation_back_mother_of_dead_soldier/

[MNJohnnie]

But is it possible this moment could make MoveOn.org what SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) was during Vietnam?


Only in their dreams.

[airborne]

These people have no problem allowing George Soros, a foreign born communist billionaire, to pay for their anti-American behavior.

They hate President Bush so much that they are willing to put our troops and our nation at risk.

They disgust me!

[NickatNite2003]

...what i want to know...Is Why Ms Sheehan hasn't
been been arrested for Child Abuse, Child neglect,
and Child Abandonment? She'sd got two daughters
that are minors..one who is reportedly abusing
drugs, and gaining a reputation as the class slut...

"Mother" Shehan seems to think it's more important to
climb up on her honorable sons casket, alomg with all
her leftie, baby killing Code Pinko, pig beasts, and
urinate all over everything her son stood and died for,
on a rescue mission to save his brothers in arms,
than taking care of her 'at risk'. living children.

"One mother, sitting in a chair....

...What a "wonderful" (wretch!) icon of "Motherhood"...leftist, liberal, degenerate,
counter-Evolutionay, DemoDeathCulture
ME-ist "Motherhood" that is...

Tell me Cindy..can you even remember the names of your daughters that are growing up to be DemoGenerate
"Feminist" pig beasts like yourself? Or, since they "are",
instead of devloping into decent people like your son, who somehow managed to, despite all your traitor hippie
leftist indoctrination...you don't figure you really
need to pay any attention to them?

[TNCMAXQ]

500 in front of the White House? Big whoop. On any given day there are already dozens of people out there protesting one thing or another.

Local media here are of course failing to point out that Sheehan has already met the president. The comments from some of the peaceniks are truly sickening, and frightening. These are the folks who would surrender rather than fire a single shot.

[gunnedah]

Bush should probably handle this thing the way Clinton would have but could the liberals stand it?
Remember when Clinton had a group of protesters in Waco they burned them to death!

[CindyDawg]

Check with the real Gold Star Moms. I heard this week that she isn't a member.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

"But is it possible this moment could make MoveOn.org what SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) was during Vietnam?"

Considering how "successful" moveon was in getting their candidates elected this last time around- I think it was 4 out of the 33 they campaigned hard for got into office.

NO, I would put my money on the opposite of whatever moveon.org endoreses... they are literally a bunch of losers. Sure, they can mobilize the great unwashed masses- but lets put this into perspective. There are 295,000,000 plus folks in this country. On any given night- there are thousands of people who go to sporting events in this country,in a single stadium. In Texas there can be upwards of 10,000 people at one event.

And moveon.org , who gets free publicity nationwide for a "peace vigil", get thousands,perhaps 10 thousand total- nation wide- to show up???

I would like to remind the freaks that counter rallies were not advertised on the radio and the news all day long for free- their "peace vigils were".

They are not representing this country.

[TaxRelief]

You have Freepmail... :)

[CyberAnt]

By: Marilyn Duff

The grieving mother camped on the road outside Bush's home in Texas has company in her grief.

Somewhere in Baghdad or Pakistan, maybe at this moment, a mother swathed in black robes squats on the floor of a hut, watching the elders of her tribe strap a bomb to her handsome teen aged son.

They cinch up the belts and murmur to him of the car he will get to drive at high speed, his future as a hero of Islam, and, of course, the seventeen virgins who await him in "heaven."

She sobs as other women try to comfort her. The boy is her favorite. A golden child he was, with a mop of black curls and eyes that looked up at her when he nursed at her breast, when she taught him to walk and when he offered bunches of desert flowers from his small hands.

Now she can see the fear in his eyes, but because she is a woman in an Islamic country she is powerless to stop the fanatical leaders of Jihad.

Her son is to die.

She knows it.

But she cannot stop it.

It was the same kind of Islamic men who stole four American jetliners full of fathers, mothers and little children and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Here in America we were 'giving peace a chance' that day, we and all those people in the upper floors of the two towers, sipping coffee at their desks and chatting at the water coolers when their world exploded into flames.

The same kind of fanatical Muslim Jihadists who strap bombs to kids, even Downs Syndrome kids, did not care about little children on airliners, or loving dads in business suits whispering goodbye on cell phones in the back rows of jets.

So Cindy Sheehan down there in Texas blames George Bush for her son's death as a soldier in Iraq. But her son was of legal age when he signed his name and enlisted. He made the choice. And though he may have signed up for the benefits the military offers, and which she doubtless approved at the time, he also swore to defend his country.

"His country." America, the leader of the free world, and now the foremost defender of Western civilization, democracy, freedom of speech, liberty to worship as we choose, and the pursuit of happiness - no matter how we live our lives.

America, the exception to all other countries in the world with our glorious constitution and Bill of Rights.

America, the envy of the world.

The men who strap bombs to schoolboys in Iraq know nothing - nothing - of democracy or civilization.

[finnman69]

Classic transcript from Hardball of Chistopher hitchens savaging Cindy as a liar and Camp Casey as Camp Fruitbag Nutbag

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465648/posts?page=35#35

[yoe]

But why did it take an attack on President Bush to light a fire on most conservatives. "

Where was the same support for the troops in Gitmo a few months back when they were under attack?

I suggest to you that this was reported well on the Internet but not in the MSM - they are hand in hand with the anti-ugly-traitorous-Americans.

[Libloather]

Would it be over the top for a few FReepers to display signs thanking Army Spc. Casey Sheehan and all others for volunteering to defend the country?

Let Cindy politicize what she wants. This may be a great time to get another message to the troops...

[doug from upland]

All the mothers in the world should be coming out to say enough to the terrorists who are killing people with car bombs and suicide bombs.

[Saundra Duffy]

Cindy's voice!!! It's like a pathetic little whining girl's voice. It's like she never grew up and wants everyone to feel sorry for her. It's disgusting beyond belief.

[airborne]

Would it be over the top for a few FReepers to display signs thanking Army Spc. Casey Sheehan and all others for volunteering to defend the country?

It would be very appropriate!

[tricky_k_1972]

My Letter to Ms. Sheehan

MS. Sheehan I understand your grief over the loss of your son.

I see how your grief might be turned into hatred for the Commander and Chief who ordered him there, however indirectly.

I also agree that this war could have been avoided, at least for awhile, after all, any war can.

Where I have problems with your statements are only where I feel you do not understand, and in fact degrade, your son's sacrifice, and make no mistake it was a sacrifice.

Your son, like many others of his compatriots, volunteered to defend this country against all enemies foreign or domestic, not the enemies that the President so designates, not enemies that a Congress designates, but the enemies of the American people, enforced by our dully elected representatives.

It was not a President whom allowed this war to proceed, but a vote of the dully elected representatives of this great Nation, the Congress, twice.

If we are not bound by our elected representatives, then what kind of country our we living in.

If our fighting forces do not follow a civilian elected government (The Congress, not just the Presidency, whom some think may not have been properly elected), then what type of government do we live under.

If a minority of our dully elected officials can control the direction of our government, no matter how vehement their opposition, than I submit to you we do not live in a country that our forefathers envisioned and indeed your son would have lived or died for not.

I served for 10 years under a Commander and Chief whom I felt did not best represent the ideals of our country, but I would have given my life on his and the elected Representative Government’s orders had it been given.

My parents both disagreed with the Commander and Chief at the time that I served, but I would have EXPECTED them to have treated my death with the honor it disserved, to have said that I died serving honorably for my country, and not have tried to dishonor my death with feigned righteous indignation at a President whom I served under, with honor.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Mo1]

"Cindy Sheehan," organizer Karen Bradley shouted into a megaphone, "you are an inspiration to us all!"

Oh really ... she's inspired to hate the jews also?

Sorry .. I'll take a pass on that kind of inspiration

[freema]

SOMEBODY TELL THE MEDIA SHEEHAN IS NOT A GOLD STAR MOTHER!
I am so sick of that. Does it show? : )