Grieving Military Mothers Rally Around Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey

BEIJING, Aug. 27 -- The mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq continues her protest against US president George W Bush.

The mother, Cindy Sheehan, started an anti-war vigil nearly three weeks ago near Bush's ranch in Texas. She said it would not end when she and other protesters packed up their camp next week.

In the protest, Sheehan and her supporters want the Bush administration to answer their questions concerning the US invasion of Iraq.

"Humanity is affected when one country wages an illegal and immoral war on another country. It affects our entire humanity and that's why America is behind us saying we want the answers to those questions too," said Cindy Sheehan.

She is to embark on a bus tour ending in late September in Washington DC. There she and other activists will start a 24-hour vigil.

Sheehan's 24-year-old son died in Iraq last year. More than 1,800 US soldiers have been killed since the March 2003 invasion.

Sheehan started camping off the main road leading to Bush's ranch in early August, vowing to stay through his month-long holiday unless he talked to her face-to-face.

Sheehan's protest in Crawford has encouraged anti-war activists to join her and prompted peace vigils nationwide

Bush has said that he appreciated Sheehan's right to protest and understood her anguish, although he said she did not represent the views of a lot of military families.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/27/content_3409718.htm

HAMISH ROBERTSON: As the fighting continued in Iraq last week, and negotiations over the new Iraqi constitution appeared close to collapse, in Washington, President Bush was launching a political counter-offensive to try and boost flagging public support for the war.

Mr Bush broke his August holidays to deliver two keynote speeches staunchly defending the war in Iraq, and pledging that American troops would stay there until their mission has been completed.

As well as sagging voter support, the President is also facing growing opposition from within his own Republican Party, with one senior Republican senator comparing the war in Iraq to America's disastrous military entanglement in Vietnam.

At the same time, the Republican Party was hit by some unexpected friendly fire from outspoken Christian broadcaster, Pat Robertson.

Here's our Washington Correspondent Michael Rowland.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: For the last three weeks, George W. Bush has been holed up at his ranch in Crawford Texas, determined to enjoy some downtime.

GEORGE BUSH: I may bike today. Been on the phone all morning, spent a little time with the CIA man this morning, keep catching up on the events of the world, spent a little quality time with the First Lady here in this beautiful part of the world... may go for a bike ride…

REPORTER: Any fishing?

GEORGE BUSH: I don't know yet… haven't made up my mind yet, kinda… hanging loose, as they say. All right, I gotta go. Thank you.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: But it's been hard for the President to really hang loose, what with an anti-war protesters just down the road, not too mention the small army of journalists and cameramen trying to get those elusive shots of Mr Bush careering around his ranch on his $3,000 trail bike.

No matter how furiously he pedals, the President's been unable to escape the daily drip feed of bad news from Iraq.

If it's not more US soldiers heading home in body bags, it's the steadily declining level of public support for the war.

An opinion poll in the Wall Street Times this week shows support for Mr Bush had dropped to just 40 per cent – the lowest level since he came to office five years ago.

Then there's been the escalating criticism from with the President's own political ranks.

The strongest words this week were from senior Republican Senator and decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel.

CHUCK HAGEL: What I think the White House does not yet understand, and some of my colleagues, the dam has broken on this policy. George talks about dissimilarities between Vietnam and Iraq. And he's right, there are many. But the longer we stay there, the more similarities are going to come together.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Determined to regain control of the political agenda, Mr Bush this week swapped his lycra shorts for a suit and tie and travelled to both Idaho and Utah to once again sell his case on Iraq.

There was this to war veterans in Salt Lake City.

GEORGE BUSH: Spreading freedom is the work of generations and no one knows that better than you. Freedom has contended with hateful ideologies before. We defeated fascism, we defeated communism. And we will defeat the hateful ideology of the terrorists who attacked America.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: And this to National Guard members in Nampa, Idaho.

GEORGE BUSH: So long as I'm the President, we will stay, we will fight, and we will win the war on terror.

(sound of crowd clapping)

MICHAEL ROWLAND: And as part of his battle to win the hearts and minds of a wavering US public, the President showcased his own military mum to counter the immense publicity achieved by anti-war campaigner Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son Casey in Iraq last year.

Tammy Pruett's husband and five sons are serving or have served in Iraq, and she says Cindy Sheehan does not speak for her.

TAMMY PRUETT: I just send our deepest condolences.

I can't imagine losing a son and the emotions that she must be going through, and we're very sorry for her loss.

Everyone mourns in their own way, and this is the way that she's chosen to mourn it. It wouldn't be the way that we would do it, but we respect her right, and that's what our country is about, is being able to voice your opinion and do things the right way.

So that's what we want for the Iraqi people, so we can't very well not want it for our people here.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The tragic fact is that as long as US troops stay on the ground in Iraq, and for as long as the insurgents prove so lethally effective, there'll be more and more US mothers thrown into the same boat as Cindy Sheehan. Not all, of course, will share her anti-war views or, if they do, be public about it.

But as the US death toll rises, so too will opposition to the war and demands for US soldiers to be pulled out of the country.

It's a scenario the President and the now dominant Republican Party don't want to face as they head into next year's mid-term congressional elections

http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2005/s1447394.htm

The police tape fluttering gently marks the front line. On one side sits a rag-tag collection of tents, home-made placards calling for the troops to come home and a long line of white crosses representing the soldiers killed in Iraq.

On the other side of the small country lane there is a smart collection of garden-style awnings filled with fold-out canvas chairs, lined with glossy placards proclaiming "Bush Country", "IM4W" and "Support Our Troops".

A sign on the highway welcoming visitors to Crawford declares the population to be 705, but today the figure is likely to be at least four times that. Thousands of pro- and anti-war activists are making their way to this little corner of Texas for the culmination of protests that began when George Bush arrived for his five-week "working vacation" at the beginning of August.

Leading the anti-war rally will be Cindy Sheehan, 48, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, whose vigil outside Mr Bush's ranch has given the US peace movement in America a new focus and forced the president on to the defensive.

Ranged against her are various conservative activists and military families, including the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!" tour, which began in Mrs Sheehan's home town of Vacaville in California and is due to arrive in Crawford at midday today.

Its figurehead is Deborah Johns, the mother of a marine serving in Iraq. The pro-war demonstrators will hold a rally in the little town, not far from Fort Qualls, which was set up in memory of Louis Qualls - a marine killed in Iraq last year but whose father, Gary, is a staunch Bush supporter.

Between them they are determined to drag the spotlight away from Mrs Sheehan, and today's two rallies promise a showdown.

Waiting at Camp Reality -the pro-war activists' name for their headquarters - is Valerie Duty, 46, a local resident who declares a little coquettishly that she is a "friend" of the president. She is on the telephone when the Guardian arrives, trying to arrange a delivery of donated bottled water, a physical necessity in the wilting, 38C (100F) heat. "There has been a silent majority during the siege against our president," she says. "But this weekend that majority is going to speak out."

Mrs Duty says she respects Mrs Sheehan's right to do what she is doing, but says she does not speak for the majority of soldiers' families. "She is a nice woman, I have met her several times ... but she is being used by these leftwing groups who want to get at the president."

Mike Greenfield, 49, from Colorado, agrees. "They just hate Bush. They are losers and they are bad losers."

Mr Greenfield criticises Mrs Sheehan's connections with the leftwing group Moveon.org, and says he has heard that Michael Moore is helping to finance her campaign.

Asked about the pro-war groups' links with Move Forward America, which is sponsoring the "You Don't Speak For Us, Cindy!" tour, Mrs Duty says all their donations come from concerned individuals.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich describes the attacks as the "swift boating" of Cindy Sheehan, a reference to the campaign to discredit John Kerry's Vietnam war record that was credited with derailing his presidential campaign.

But over at Camp Casey - named after Mrs Sheehan's 24-year-old son - they accept the criticism as a badge of honour.

Anne Wright, a career diplomat who resigned on the eve of the war, points out that the protest has come far from its start as three women sleeping in a car at the end of the road to Mr Bush's ranch.

"There has always been a peace movement out there [but] finally we have managed to get some media attention, and it has given all those people out there a focal point."

When Mrs Sheehan was forced to return home to California last week after her mother had a stroke, many expected the protest to fizzle out. But by the time she returned on Wednesday it had grown. Most of the protesters have moved to a field donated by a local farmer, a stone's throw away from the presidential ranch.

A big white marquee has been erected and minibuses shuttle protesters in from Crawford. In a kitchen area, volunteers prepare meals for up to 200 people, much of it with donated food - including 220kgs (50lbs) of bison meat from a local farmer. "I'm a vegetarian cook but I was like, 'OK, I'll cook meat for the revolution'," said Rebekah Patrode, 28, who drove 1,800 miles from Wendel in Massachusetts to be here.

Joan Baez, the folk singer, came to talk to some of the families and ended up staying three nights, while organisers estimate that about 8,000 people have visited the site in the past three weeks. They are expecting at least 1,000 to come this weekend before the camp packs up on Wednesday.

Conservatives have tried to dismiss the activists as the "lunatic fringe" of former Vietnam protesters, but not all are the usual suspects.

Larry Donovan, 87, has come 80 miles from his cattle ranch in Georgetown, Texas, to pay his respects to Mrs Sheehan.

"I just love her," he said, a cowboy hat protecting his head from the sun. "With all the cheap politicians that we have it takes one lone woman to start something - but you know, I think that the politicians might just have to follow."

Oliver Utne, 21, a student from Connecticut, is directing traffic outside the camp. "People like Karl Rove [Mr Bush's political chief adviser] have done very good job of convincing people that if you are a mainstream American then you have to be in favour of the war. Well, I'm a mainstream American and I wanted to come here to show that you don't have to be a wacko to be against the war."

The protesters at Camp Casey believe they are gaining ground. Mrs Sheehan will begin a country-wide bus tour when she leaves Crawford, ending in Washington DC on September 24 for a long-planned anti-war march through the capital. In reality, the turnout then will be a better barometer of public sentiment than which of the protests manage to mobilise the most support today.

"We hope that the people of America will use that event to put pressure on the White House and show in huge numbers the public angst and the need to end the war and stop killing people," Mrs Wright said. "But you know, I feel we have the momentum now. I want to come here to show you don't have to be whacko to be against the war."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1557489,00.html