Thread: Dead Marine's Mom Protests at Bush Ranch

The MSM has a short memory or an agenda, or both:

http://www.michellemalkin.com/

THE FRIENDS OF CINDY SHEEHAN
By Michelle Malkin · August 08, 2005 11:22 AM
*see updates*

The Bush-bashing mother of a soldier who died in Iraq last year has garnered quite a bit of buzz from the MSM for her anti-war vigil outside of Crawford, Texas. Drudge highlights her rather drastic change of heart:

CINDY 2004
THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan's visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004:

"'I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.'

"The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

"The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

"For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said."
CINDY 2005

Sheehan's current comments are a striking departure.

She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son?"

In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush "acted like it was party" when she met him last year...


The woman is clearly anguished about her son's death, as any parent would be. But in her grief, she has lost sight of the fact that her 24-year-old son, Casey, proudly and willingly served. Sheehan's father told the press in April 2004 that his son had re-enlisted the previous August, planned to make a career in the military, and "loved the Army because it gave him a chance to serve his country." I can't imagine Army Spc. Casey Sheehan would stand for his mother's crazy accusations that he was murdered by his commander-in-chief, rather than the Iraqi terrorists who ambushed his convoy. I can't imagine Army Spc. Casey Sheehan would stand for a bunch of strangers glomming onto his mother's crusade and using him to undermine the war effort as they shouted "W killed her son" in front of countless TV cameras.

Cindy Sheehan has surrounded herself with a group of anti-American, anti-military, terrorist-sympathizing agitators, including Code Pink, the Crawford Peace House, and the crackpot crowd.

It's a sad spectacle. President Bush should continue to treat Mrs. Sheehan with the same compassion and sympathy he showed her when they first met--before her heart and mind were poisoned by the professional grievance-mongers who claim to be her friends.

***
More reax...

Blogger KMG, a Marine and father of a Marine serving in Iraq, responds.

The Anchoress reflects on suffering and political exploitation.

Conservative Dialysis on Mrs. Sheehan's conversion.

***
Update:

Marine Mom Lisa L. writes:

My son was in Iraq with the 2/4 Battallion the same time Casey Sheehan was there. Eric had some close friends die during the 7 months they were there. A couple of the moms of the dead troops are a member of an email support group I belong to and they both recounted their visit with Bush. Bush makes every effort to meet with the families of the fallen and he is very warm and loving toward them all. He has cried with the families, has talked with them at length, even about if the death was worth it, and for one mom, he asked for the picture she showed him of her son. Sheehan is dishonoring her son's memory and hurting our troops.
Update II: Kristinn Taylor of FreeRepublic.com writes...

It was Freeper research that dug out The Vacaville Reporter story Saturday evening. It was found on Cindy Sheehan's own Website. We paid The Reporter for their archived version to authenticate it.
I spoke with the news desks of Reuters, AP, Fox, CNN and The Sacremento Bee Saturday night and Sunday morning. None of them knew about the first meeting Sheehan had with President Bush last year and asked me to e-mail the information, which I did. I also e-mailed The NY Times with the info after reading Richard Stevenson's first article about Sheehan.

With the exception of Reuters (which appeared to have given Steve Holland the day off on Sunday) they all added to their stories that Sheehan had met previously with Bush. However, none of them challenged Sheehan on her wildly differing versions of that meeting.

AP's Deb Riechmann appears to have at least asked her, but didn't use any of The Reporter's quotes. Instead she let Sheehan get away with saying she was in shock at the time of the meeting.

We sent The Reporter story to Drudge last night during his radio show and he picked up on it on the air. He also allowed me on the show to talk about it. I told him that Cindy Sheehan used to have photos on her Website of her and President Bush and her family from that meeting in 2004 but that the photos were now delinked. However, the captions were still there as of Saturday night.

It was really appalling yesterday to watch Wolf Blitzer let Sheehan get away with her horrid description of her meeting with Bush when CNN's Washington bureau had The Reporter article in their hands Sunday morning.

The media is treating her as a sainted mother rather than as the hardcore leftist agitator she has become.

According to a Providence Journal article on July 27, 2005, Sheehan says she has stopped paying her taxes and is daring the government to come after her.

Also, in her speech Friday night at the Veterans for Peace conference, Sheehan is quoted by an attendee who posted a transcript of the speech over at DU that she is so full of rage that if she started hitting something she wouldn't be able to stop until she killed it. She said that while talking about her reaction to President Bush's remarks about the Ohio Marines killed in action last week...


Mrs. Sheehan, as they say, seems to "have issues."

Update III: The left-wing blog, Raw Story, claims that Drudge has taken the 2004 story on Sheehan's meeting with President Bush out of context. But the article excerpts Raw Story highlights, which quote Sheehan's husband, Pat, seem to bolster the case against Mrs. Sheehan even more:

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."
"...But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act.

"...We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn't have to take the time to meet with us," Pat said.

Here's a response from a soldier who served in Iraq

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.soldiersperspective.us/?p=519

Open Letter To Cindy SheehanBlogged in General Perspective, Military Perspective, Photo Perspective by CJ Sunday August 7, 2005
Dear Mrs. Cindy Sheehan,

I read with interest your story as told by CNN. Losing a child is a very difficult event to have to deal with. While I have never lost a child, I know what it’s like to lose a friend in combat. I am a soldier who served in Iraq and was fortunate enough to make it home. It was because of the sacrifice of people like your son that I did so. I sympathize with your loss and pray that our Heavenly Father can soothe your soul and open your heart to the plan He has laid out for Casey at His right hand.

From reading the article, I gathered that there are at least two questions that you demand answers to: Why did [President Bush] kill your son? What did he die for?

If I may, I’d like to answer them both, while at the same time praying that you get the same answers directly from the President.

President Bush did not kill your son, Casey. A radical Islamic terrorist from another country and/or disillusioned Iraqis killed him. President Bush had the backing of Congress when he authorized military action in Iraq. In October AND November of 2002 Congress authorized the use of force against Iraq. The United Nations (whom I detest) passed numerous resolutions as well authorizing force if certain conditions weren’t met by Saddam Hussein. When those resolutions resolved, we enforced them. This does not bring back your son, but it lessens the guilt placed upon our President’s shoulders. There are 535 members of Congress that you should also petition if you truly want this question answered.

What did you son die for? Casey died for a number of things, not the least of which is peace, democracy, humanity, love, loyalty, and patriotism. He died giving more than 25,000,000 people a better life. While Iraq today is not an ideal environment right now, history will prove that your son is personally responsible for Iraq’s future prosperity. In addition to those 25,000,000+ Iraqis, your son died for the more than 1,000,000 other soldiers serving in Iraq, and the few specific soldiers that were privileged to have known and worked with Casey. By being in Iraq as a mechanic, Casey was directly responsible for each successful mission that brought soldiers home safely. By keeping their trucks in the best shape under the worst conditions, he saved numerous lives. When the terrorists attempted to ambush our patrols, it was a well maintained vehicle that got them out of the kill sack. Most likely that vehicle was your son’s responsibility.

Casey died in Iraq so that more civilians didn’t have to die here. By taking the fight to those who would rather kill us, he secured our way of life in this great nation. The terrorists and insurgents operating in Iraq could care less that we are there. To them, fighting us in Iraq only saves them airfare and extra planning. They don’t care where they kill us, so long as a non-Muslim American is targetted. They’d prefer a civilian target, but our soldiers are keeping them focused elsewhere.

Civilians are getting killed all over because of religious intolerance. It’s happening in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, United Kingdom, Russia, Iraq and other countries. People are being killed by suicide bombers, car bombs, IEDs, and other means. You may notice that since September 11th, we have not had another terrorist attack in our country. That does not mean that there won’t be another, but Casey is one of many largely responsible for the fact that there hasn’t been one yet.

I really do hope that you can be comforted in the knowledge that Casey died for something beyond the scope that many of us can comprehend. I hope that you can begin to celebrate his sacrifice as something honorable. I pray that each American will live their life worthy of his sacrifice. In Casey’s death, we all have life. In his death, other nations will be able to partake of the same fruits of liberty for the first time that we’ve enjoyed for the past 229 years.

With Respect and Admiration,

SFC CJ Grisham

Here's a response from a blogger who is a retired US Army helicopter pilot

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://rofasix.blogspot.com/

Here is what I would have written Ms. Sheehan. It is a message I know she will refuse to hear. But I am confident her son would have agreed.

We fight for a cause that has not been as right or as just, since WWII, our last true war in defense of our country. It is a war of free men and ideas against a darkness that seeks to remake the world in a tyranny unheralded in history. For that, your son chose to defend freedom, you and me. No soldier can do more.

We are not in Iraq for the Iraqis. We are in Iraq, attempting to foster the growth of a new nation because of our national interests. It is us, not for the people of Iraq, although they too will benefit. Only our self-interest is a justifiable reason to remain in Iraq. Any other reason is an insult to those who serve our country. Nowhere in that oath sworn to support and defend the constitution was bringing “good stuff” to other countries mentioned, nor should it have been.

Today, we only speak of acting in our own selfish interest in hushed tones as if it is somehow dirty. The concept of altruism has poisoned much of our intellectual honesty. Self-interest is rarely articulated in today’s politically correct world. No politician dare say it. Consider it a “third rail” of intellectual honesty. Few dare touch it for fear of being pummeled by the press and philosophical and religious altruists. But our own rational self-interest is the only justifiable reason for our presence in Iraq.

Iraq is but the most visible and immediate battleground for the future of our nation. If we achieve a free and tolerant Iraq in the center of Islam, we drive a wooden stake into the heart of a religion perverted by vampires of hate. If we fail in Iraq, all the freedom and liberty we have known is doomed. The radical Islamists, who attacked America again on 9/11, know this. The freedom you exercised to picket outside the President’s ranch will end. It is a gift from your son and all the soldiers who went before him. It was for his and your freedom and liberty your son chose to fight. He knew that failure would mean the future will include only the choice to submit to the will of the Imam/Mullah or be killed as an apostate. You son fought for himself and for you to continue to have the freedom you exercised in Texas the other day.

You son did not sacrifice himself for us or the Iraqi people either. A sacrifice assumes giving up one’s life for others, such as the people of Iraq. It comes down to this. Soldiers choose to fight for their comrades in the near term “little picture.” They choose to fight (and die), in the “big picture,” because they believe their fight will insure that they and the people of the US do not live under the thumb of radical Islamists who kill those who do not believe as they do.

Ayn Rand explained this idea of sacrifice best in the following two quotes. Think about the concepts Ms. Sheehan, because I know the ideas are alien to you.

"Any action that a man undertakes for the benefit of those he loves is not a sacrifice if, in the hierarchy of his values, in the total context of the choices open to him, it achieves that which is the greater personal (and rational) importance to him." (Rand, Virtue of Selfishness, p.49)

"If you wish to save the last of your dignity, do not call the best of your actions a “sacrifice”” that term brands you as immoral…If a man dies fighting for his own freedom, it is not a sacrifice: he is not willing to live as a slave’ but it is a sacrifice to the kind of man who’s willing. If a man refused to sell his convictions, it is not a sacrifice, unless he is the sort of man who has no convictions." (Rand, For the New Intellectual, p. 161)

You see, Ms. Sheehan, only free men can make these choices. It is that same “freedom” most liberals think is trite when someone tells them to “thank a soldier,” for it.

Never forget Ms. Sheehan, we fight not for the people of Iraq, but for the people of America. There is no other reason to justify a war. You son understood that. He fought for his right to choose his life, free of religious despots and free from a society where free men are enslaved by altruism and statism. He fought for what he believed was right. It is why free men become soldiers and why some die fighting for their freedom... and ours.

I think this woman has more problems than I originally thought. My assumption would be that she has some guilt that she "allowed" her son to go to Iraq and should have had some motherly premonition to try and stop him. It is unfortunate that any of our armed forces are losing their lives, but I think it would be great if this mother could understand that her child's death, while tragic, means more than what she is currently seeing.

Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal

At the risk of being accused of straying from my liberal ways, I want to say that to actually go on record blaming GW for this is ridiculous.

A leader's job is to comfort the family of the Fallen anyway he can, including taking the abuse. It may not have been a leader's fault for the family's loss but it is his responsibility.

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

A leader's job is to comfort the family of the Fallen anyway he can, including taking the abuse. It may not have been a leader's fault for the family's loss but it is his responsibility.

Very well said, sir.

Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal

Very well said, sir.

It's also her responsibility as an adult to not be an a$$hole and to not use her son's death for political purposes.

-dale

Originally Posted by dalem

It's also her responsibility as an adult to not be an a$$hole and to not use her son's death for political purposes.

-dale

Her failure to live up to her responsibilities does not relieve us of ours.

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

Her failure to live up to her responsibilities does not relieve us of ours.

I didn't say it did. But she has publically changed her tune and is allowing herself to be used as a tool by the anti-Bush folks here in this country. After she met the Prez face to face the first time she pronounced herself satisfied and the President's motives sincere. Now she claims he is lying and she still got to meet people in his cabinet. She is getting far more consideration than she should.

-dale

Originally Posted by dalem

After she met the Prez face to face the first time she pronounced herself satisfied and the President's motives sincere. Now she claims he is lying and she still got to meet people in his cabinet. She is getting far more consideration than she should.

-dale

I agree with you as well. I guess I just see that if it were me in her situation, I would like to believe that I would not act as she is. I would like to think that I would be able to honor my childs death and take pride in the fact that at least he died doing something worthwhile and not as a result of a drive by or some other equally senseless act. I feel bad that this woman is never going to be able to get past this and heal until she stops blaming other people.

The fact that the government would even take the time to meet with her is admirable and she needs to take that and move on. Publicly bashing the President is not going to bring her son back and it is not going to end the war.

The LA Times is sticking to its standard message while cherry picking and spinning quotes from the same Michelle Malking post that I posted earlier in the thread. No mention of the quotes that show that Ms. Sheehan was pleased with the meeting with Mr. Bush initially or challenging why she has changed her mind.

Los Angeles Times
August 11, 2005
Pg. 1

Mother's Protest At Bush's Doorstep Raises The Stakes

By Edwin Chen and Dana Calvo, Times Staff Writers

CRAWFORD, Texas — For more than a year, a modest bungalow known as "Peace House," located a few miles from President Bush's ranch, has served as a headquarters for antiwar activists. It is lonely work, with little more than a skeleton crew on hand much of the time.

But then Cindy Sheehan hit town.

The 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year, is consumed by the kind of grief that turns into a furious determination to do something — in her case, to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.

Now, in the space of just a few days, what started out as a seemingly quixotic personal mission has become something of a phenomenon — with media swarming around Sheehan, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.

Antiwar leaders hope that putting the spotlight on Sheehan will motivate Americans who oppose the war, creating a political force strong enough to compel the Bush administration to change course.

MoveOn.org and other liberal groups have rushed to provide support, offering media expertise and attempting to assemble a corps of others who have lost relatives in Iraq or have family members serving there.

Liberal voices have swung into action on the Internet as well. On Wednesday, Democratic media consultant Joe Trippi organized a conference call with Sheehan for bloggers, aiming to garner more publicity. By Wednesday afternoon, "Cindy Sheehan" was the top-ranked search term on Technorati.com, the search engine for blog postings.

The White House, meanwhile, has sought to cope with Sheehan's vigil without abandoning its strategy for dealing with the families of troops who have died. On a number of occasions, Bush has met with bereaved relatives — including some who have challenged him sharply on the war — but he has done so privately, away from news cameras and reporters.

Sheehan, a Vacaville, Calif., resident who opposed the war even before her son's death, was a member of one such group in June 2004. She came away from that meeting dissatisfied and angry.

"We wanted [the president] to look at pictures of Casey, we wanted him to hear stories about Casey, and he wouldn't. He changed the subject every time we tried," Sheehan said. "He wouldn't say Casey's name, called him: 'your loved one.' "

Sheehan, a co-founder of the antiwar group Gold Star Families for Peace, has said she would remain in Crawford until she got to see Bush face to face.

Until a cloudburst forced her to move to Peace House early Wednesday morning, Sheehan had been camping in a tent along a road about two miles from Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch. On Saturday, the day she arrived in Crawford, two senior White House aides — national security advisor Stephen Hadley and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin — left the ranch to meet with her on a dusty road for 45 minutes.

That, she said, was not satisfactory.

By Wednesday night, Sheehan had given so many interviews that she was sucking on lozenges to soothe an inflamed throat. Her ears were sore from cradling a telephone. Her media advisor, newly arrived from San Francisco, said Sheehan had developed a fever.

None of that stopped her. Whether talking to newspaper reporters, People magazine or radio and television interviewers — some from as far away as Japan — she was relentlessly on message.

"I don't believe his phony excuses for the war," she said of Bush in an interview with a CBS reporter for the network's Northern California affiliates. "I want him to tell me why my son died.

"If he gave the real answer, people in this country would be outraged — if he told people it was to make his buddies rich, that it was about oil."

Sheehan is certainly not the first to denounce the president over the war. From the beginning, activists have been outspoken in criticizing Bush's policy and his stated reasons for sending U.S. troops into Iraq.

For the moment however, the personal nature of Sheehan's protest — with its edge of raw emotion — and the concentration of news media staked out in Crawford, where Bush is spending much of August, have combined to raise her voice above the crowd.

"Anything that focuses media and public attention on Iraq war casualties day after day — particularly [something] that is a good visual for television, like a weeping Gold Star mother — is a really bad thing for President Bush and his administration," said independent political analyst Charlie Cook.

"Americans get a little numb by the numbers of war casualties, but when faces, names and families are added, it has a much greater effect," he said.

"Cindy Sheehan has tapped into a latent but fervent feeling among some in this country who would prefer that we not engage our troops in Iraq," said Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, president of the Polling Company, based in Washington.

"She can tap into what has been an astonishingly silent minority since the end of last year's presidential contest. It will capture attention."

But other analysts predicted that Sheehan would soon fade from the scene.

"The president has an Iraq problem, but I don't think it's much worsened by Mrs. Sheehan," said professor Stephen Hess of George Washington University. "One Gold Star mother is a sympathetic figure, but collectively — as Gold Star Families for Peace — she is a movement and, as such, can be countered by a countermovement.

"I think the president might have defused the situation if he had invited her in instantly," Hess said, predicting that GOP strategists would soon mount a counterattack.

Already, there were signs of just that.

Some have suggested that Sheehan is disloyal to criticize the president in time of war. Even in Vacaville, Sheehan said, some people say she is shaming her son's memory. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin disdainfully called the activists promoting Sheehan "grief pimps."

The antiwar activists who have rushed to Sheehan's side are all too well aware of the danger that her moment in the spotlight could become just another partisan shouting match.

Said Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org: "Cindy reached out to us. We're e-mailing our members about her story today, running a print ad in Waco [Texas]. Cindy is a morally pure voice on the war, so we're trying to keep the focus on her and not jump in and turn it into a political fight."

Since Sheehan arrived in Crawford, Peace House has been transformed into a beehive.

On the porch, bottles of water — and a huge box of collapsible pink umbrellas — were waiting Wednesday to be ferried out to "Camp Casey," the muddy staging area along Prairie Chapel Road where Sheehan and about 100 of her supporters were gathered.

On a table in the living room were stacks of white T-shirts that read "BUSH … Talk to Cindy! Moms and Vets Will Stop the War!"

In the tiny kitchen, two women busily chopped carrots and celery as they prepared to feed a growing cadre of activists. Other volunteers talked on their cellphones, coordinating with supporters around the country.

There was much speculation about "other moms" and parents of troops serving in the war coming to join Sheehan, although no one seemed to know for certain. "A busload is coming from Seattle," one woman called out.

Stephanie Frizzell, 30, said she drove from Dallas with her son, Julian, 4, "to provide support for Cindy." They met last weekend at a Dallas convention of veterans for peace.

According to Ann Wright, who identified herself as a former U.S. diplomat who resigned to protest the war, Sheehan seemed to make a spontaneous decision to come to Crawford while she was addressing the convention Friday.

Wright said many hands were raised, offering to join her mission.

As Sheehan put it Wednesday: "I just had the right idea in the right place at the right time."

Times staff writers Ronald Brownstein, Joel Havemann and Johanna Neuman in Washington contributed to this report.

The way too far leftists, the ones that have gone so far that they are in danger of actually falling off the left end of the earth, like this Cindy Sheehan, are kinda getting to me. They are giving everyone who thinks badly about Democrats ammunition and all but confirming that us Liberals are all a bunch of wacked out lunatics. Out of curiosity, has Michael Moore joined her crusade yet?

I also do not think that war is a great idea, it would never be my first choice, but I can accept and appreciate that sometimes, it is the only choice. No one asked me if I thought that we should go to war, no one called me up to see what my opinion was. You know why? Because it is not my job to make that decision. Luckily we have put in place a government to make those decisions for us. MY job it to sit at a desk all day looking at a computer monitor, occasionally I pick up the phone to see who is on the other end. I am safe, I am not in harms way, there is little risk that I am going to die for any cause today. I am glad I am not making these decisions. I would never want to be in that position. Since I am not the one making them, I cannot very well sit back and criticize the ones that are appointed to make them for me...neither should Cindy Sheehan. She should be grateful she lives in a country that allows her to run around talking to every news agency that will listen to her critize our government, bad-mouth our President and complain about the war and the military that is in place to protect her. She should be satisfied that she has not yet been arrested or put in a mental institution.

to confront the president and force him to explain why her son died.

Does this really need to be explained to her? She has not yet come across anyone that has told her that her son died fighting for rights he obviously believed in?

By Wednesday night, Sheehan had given so many interviews that she was sucking on lozenges to soothe an inflamed throat. Her ears were sore from cradling a telephone. Her media advisor, newly arrived from San Francisco, said Sheehan had developed a fever.

Some have suggested that Sheehan is disloyal to criticize the president in time of war. Even in Vacaville, Sheehan said, some people say she is shaming her son's memory. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin disdainfully called the activists promoting Sheehan "grief pimps."

There is a psychological illness called Münchhausen Syndrome. In short, this is where people will make up medical illnesses and go through medical tests just for the attention they would get from family, doctors, etc. - They crave a pity party, if you will. Much like Cindy Sheehan. I seriously think that this woman is simply getting enjoyment from being the center of all this attention. She has got an entire group of people I am embarrassed to refer to as Liberals, bowing to her every whim, standing up beside her against our government and trying their best to interfere with the daily tasks of our President.

"Anything that focuses media and public attention on Iraq war casualties day after day — particularly [something] that is a good visual for television, like a weeping Gold Star mother — is a really bad thing for President Bush and his administration," said independent political analyst Charlie Cook.

This woman should not, by any means, be called, referred to, or considered a Gold Star Mother.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...030925-11.html
More than 75 years ago, one mother's determination to transform her personal loss into good works led to the creation of the American Gold Star Mothers. After receiving notice of her son's death in aerial combat during World War I, Grace Darling Seibold devoted her energy to volunteering in a local hospital. She began reaching out to other mothers whose sons had died in military service to the Nation. She organized a group of these special mothers to help them comfort each other and care for hospitalized veterans. Their organization was named after the gold star service flag that families hung in their windows in honor of family members who had died in military service. After years of planning, it became a national organization in 1928. Since then, brave women have continued to come together as Gold Star Mothers to ease the burden of their loss and to serve others.

Today, numerous chapters of Gold Star Mothers across our Nation offer important programs and services to enhance the lives of veterans and provide support for their families. Their civic education programs and help for those in need honor the lives of their sons and daughters and strengthen America.

This crazed woman is doing none of the things I have bolded above. By pure definition, she absolutely does not fall into this category.

THL,
Has Karl Rove hired you to pose as a liberal on message boards?

Sorry guys but in my view we all grieve for every single soldier we loose. I dont believe for one second that country is worth even one american life. Those soldiers are over there doing the job that no one else wants to do however WE all want to benefit from a safer world populace. I cant blame the lady for grieving her son as we all have and will continue to do as americans. I did vote for Bush. In my eyes he was the better choice for the predictiment that we are now in instead of John Kerry. And as that man he is responsible but let us not forget he is only a man. He goes to bed at night and wakes in the moring with the same fears that we all do. I certainly would not say he is right all the time as what human being is. This president has been a more personal then any president in history to my knowledge please correct me if im wrong. We all know hes certainly not the best but we must support him as a U.S. president and our commander in chief. Our children made that choice to support the armed forces as our fathers did in ww1 and ww2 etc and yes that means having to go to war and the possibility of being killed and having to kill. They did so for a reason that reason was to make the world a better safer place for all of us. All I can say is I dont condone brow beating our president for the bad things that happen including the deaths of our troops in foreign countries. But I do condone praying that he and the rest of the world leaders will make it a better place for us and our grandchilderen and that the world may become a more peacful and understanding place. Like my father before me in WWII I would serve if called upon as he did without remorse.
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS AND THEIR FAMILIES THORUGH THE GOOD AND THE BAD WE LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM AND AWAIT A BRIGHTER DAY WHEN THEY RETURN.