So, what do the forum members feel about the standoff that Cindy and George have going on down in Crawford Texas. Pretty interesting situation, I think.

I attended a vigil supporting Ms. Sheehan. To me, it seems like she has a good point. (If we started this war for the wrong reasons, why don't we hurry up and get our kids the heck out of there?) I don't wish that Saddam were back in power, but he could have been forced out of power in a very different fashion that would have been far less devasting to our economy, our standing in the world, and our soldiers and their loved ones.

--Robyn

Hey Tim, how about linking to a news article or giving a synopsis of the situation so those who don't live in the US will know what's going on? This helps involve them in the conversation as well.

Thanks!

Ok, here is the situation as I understand it. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a United States soldier who was killed in Iraq. This happened sometime last year, I think. Shortly after her son was killed, she, along with several other family members of U.S soldiers who had lost their lives in Iraq were invited to meet with President Bush. It was ostensibly to show the President's compassion for the families of our war dead, but some, including Cindy now feel it was staged as more of a photo-op as part of the Bush administration's PR campaign. So, apparently after this first meeting with Bush, Cindy got more and more involved in the idea that our involvement in Iraq had been wrong from the beginning and (her words) "Bush had lied to the nation to get us into this war and now her son was dead, and for what?. So, she got involved in the antiwar movement and was a visible and outspoken participant in protests and rallies in Northern California where she lives (Fairfield). So, when Mr. Bush decides to take a monthlong working vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Cindy goes there to see if she can get another meeting with him. She feels compelled to meet with Bush so that she can ask him only one question; " For what noble cause did my son die in Iraq". So Bush is there, and she is there, waiting outside the gates of his compound for him to agree to another meeting and he steadfastly refuses. So the media gets ahold of this and her simple protest grows. And more people show up on the road leading to Bush's place, some who agree with Cindy and support her and some who think she is wrong, for whatever reason. So, as this is going on the organized antiwar movement embraces Cindy and puts her forth as their "poster mom". And it goes on and on, and still Bush refuses to meet with her. The official word from the administration is that Bush won't meet with her because that would encourage others to do what she has done, hound him hoping he will give in. Last week she left the encampment because her mother had a stroke and she went to visit her in California. Late this last week she returned to Crawford and continued where she had left off. At this point the media, the antiwar people and the Bush suuporters are whipped into a fever pitch of vitriolic name calling and finger pointing. So far there has been no real violence, just some pushing and shoving and someone drove over some wooden crosses the antiwar people had set up to symbolize the dead soldiers. Bush is due to leave Crawford this next week and go back to Washington, and Cindy is still out there and he still refuses to meet with her and people on both sides are getting more and more pissed off.
The media is there en masse and the cameras are rolling, and something has got to give. It might get ugly. Oh, and Cindy says that if he doesn't agree to meet with her in Texas, she will follow him to Washington and continue her protest there. To top it all off, it came out in the news this last week that Cindy's husband had filed divorce papers back home in Fairfield. There you have it, as I understand it. Here's a link to yahoo's coverage. http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/antiwar_movement

This is an odd situation, I think. I relate far better to Sheehan than to President Bush, being against the war myself, and also having lost someone close to my family in Iraq. (My husband's best friend. Not a son, but a brother by choice rather than blood, and my husband was devastated.) I support her views.

Yet of course I see there is no way that Mr. Bush would meet with this woman, even if it were under different circumstances. Does he even have time in his schedule to meet with every family of the fallen, let alone do it twice? And add the fact that this woman is no longer JUST a proud mother of a soldier, meeting the President to honor her son's memory, but now she's an ANGRY, proud mother of a soldier, wanting to ask the president why her son died. This is not a question the man (or any man, really) can answer, and she is being unreasonable, I think.

The situation is out of control now, and maybe shouldn't ever have happened the way it did. The pro-Bush/pro-war protestors accuse Sheehan of trivializing the death of soldiers, which I find particularly offensive considering her son WAS one. The anti-war protestors raise crosses to honor the dead in ways their families might neither approve nor appreciate, which I also find particularly offensive. It's just not good all around.

I am against the war because I am a pacifist, and I think this sort of situation does more harm than good.

I don't understand why she's angry. Sad yes. Your son joined the armed forces, he didn't do it to learn to play the piano, he did it to fight. He doesn't get to decide where or why or who with. He would have realised that before he enlisted, or I hope so.
I am against the war too, in so far as it was a stupid, illconceived and politically motivated. However you gotta finish what you start.
America will get even less respect from the international community if it blows a country half to hell then wanders off.
Now I don't expect for one minute the USA will stay in Iraq until the job is done, more likely they will stay long enough to be able to say the job is done pass the hot potato to the Iraqi military and go home. I'm not having a go at the USA for this, other countries would and have done the same sort of thing.
So OK they shouldn't be there but the longer they stay to get the work done the better.
Clearly Cindy Sheehan is suffering, it's kind of sad that her she feels her grief can be used to political advantage. Isn't that what Bush did to her.