Cindy Sheehan Backlash Grows

(SACRAMENTO) – Cindy Sheehan has announced she plans to return “very soon” to her anti-war vigil in Crawford, Texas. When, and if she does, she’ll find she has some company.

The national organization that supports our troops and the war against terrorism, Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org), is leading the “You Don’t Speak for Me, Cindy” tour, and the effort is growing by the hour.

Military families and talk radio hosts are bringing Americans along caravans – with all roads leading to Crawford, Texas for a giant “We Support Our Troops & Their Mission” rally in Crawford on Saturday, August 27, 2005. Leading the delegation is Deborah Johns of Northern California Marine Moms. Deborah’s son, William, has served 2 tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The main caravan leaves from San Francisco, California on Monday morning (August 21st). Supporters will be joining the caravan along the way and cheering it on at stops. The caravan heads throughout California (stopping in Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles and San Diego) traveling through Arizona (stopping in Phoenix) and New Mexico (stopping in Albuquerque). Once in Texas the caravan will pick up even more supporters at stops at Amarillo, Fort Worth, Dallas and Waco before arriving in Crawford.

Talk radio hosts are helping to promote this event – with many joining the caravan along the way.

The caravan kicks off in San Francisco where Melanie Morgan of KSFO 560 AM will lead her listeners along the first leg of the caravan. Morgan will also travel to Dallas, Texas on Friday to join the final two legs of the caravan into Crawford.

“For the past few weeks this nation has heard from those voices in America who advocate surrender in the war against terrorism. Now, it’s time to hear from the other side of this debate. We are going to rally Americans together to show the terrorists overseas that our nation has not lost its resolve nor its nerve to prevail in the fight against their violent, extremist agenda,” said Melanie Morgan who serves as Chairman of Move America Forward.

When the caravan arrives in Sacramento, California it will stop off at the studios of KFBK 1530 AM – where KFBK’s Mark Williams will interview the caravan attendees as he fills in for the “Tom Sullivan Show.” Williams will get live reports on the caravan each day before he flies to Dallas, Texas on Friday to join the final two legs of the caravan into Crawford.

“Since our region of northern California is the place Cindy Sheehan calls home, we owe it to the nation to present another voice from this area. That’s why Deborah Johns, the Marine mother, and I are heading to Crawford, Texas. We have a message for the President and the American people: Now is not the time to pull our support from the heroic mission our sons and daughters are serving in Iraq,” said Williams.

Talk show host Martha Zoller of WDUN 550 AM Atlanta/Gainesville is also heading to Dallas to join the final two legs of the caravan and she’s invited her listeners to come down for the caravan and pro-troop rally in Crawford on August 27th – to stand by her side.

“I am going on the "you don't speak for me, Cindy" tour because of the American heroes who have lost their lives in the Global War on Terror. Casey Sheehan is an American hero and he had to live with the knowledge that his mother didn't understand what he was doing...he had to die with that knowledge, too. The media has elevated Cindy Sheehan as the voice of those families who have lost loved ones, but Cindy Sheehan speaks for a very small minority. We’re going to tell the rest of the story now,” said Zoller.

Also traveling from the Atlanta area is Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson (Ret. – U.S. Air Force) who broadcasts “The Buzz Cut” radio show on the RighTalk Radio Network.

Patterson shares something in common with the other talk show hosts heading to Crawford, Texas – he just returned from Iraq as part of the 10-day “Voices of Soldiers” tour.

“Our troops serving in Iraq made it very clear that they believe in the mission they are serving in. We must stand by them now, for if we don’t we only will embolden the terrorists who are doing everything they can to weaken America’s resolve. If we turn our backs on the mission in Iraq now, then our sons and daughters who have been killed in this conflict will have died in vain,” said Patterson.

Additionally, caravans to Crawford to join the August 27th rally are being planned from Louisiana, Florida, Connecticut and other areas throughout the nation. Many caravans are being organized in conjunction with the supporters of Free Republic at their website, www.FreeRepublic.com

Starting Wednesday this week, Move America Forward will begin airing a 60-second television commercial promoting the “Support Our Troops & Their Mission” rally in Crawford, Texas. The ad is expected to air nationwide on cable news networks. You can view the ad online at the Move America Forward website – www.MoveAmericaForward.org

Move America Forward will provide continuous updates on the caravan and rally at its website – www.MoveAmericaForward.org

Peacenik paper fawns over antiwar mom

By Patrick Frey
Patrick Frey runs a blog called Patterico's Pontifications (www.patterico.com).

August 21, 2005

I CANNOT IMAGINE what it would be like to lose my child the way Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. The bereaved mother, who until Thursday had been camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, has every right to protest the war, and her demonstration was certainly news.

But in its apparent zeal to portray Sheehan as the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement, the Los Angeles Times has omitted facts and perspectives that might undercut her message or explain the president's reluctance to meet with her again.

For example, The Times uncritically reported Sheehan's claim that the president had behaved callously in a June 2004 meeting with her and her husband, refusing to look at pictures of Casey or listen to stories about him. The Times claimed without qualification that Sheehan "came away from that meeting dissatisfied and angry."

But the article failed to mention that Sheehan had previously described Bush as sincere and sympathetic in the meeting. According to an interview with her hometown paper, the Vacaville Reporter, Sheehan had said that although she was upset about the war, she decided not to confront the president — who clearly left a favorable impression: "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis…. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

Of that trip, Sheehan said: "That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together." In the 11 articles and columns about Sheehan that The Times had run on its news pages as of Friday, there is no hint of her previous praise for the president.

Ironically, columnists Jonathan Chait and Margaret Carlson evidently assumed that The Times had informed its readers about Sheehan's contradictions, and ran columns that unconvincingly tried to reconcile Sheehan's varying versions. But even the Washington Post — no bastion of the fabled vast right-wing conspiracy — saw discrepancies between Sheehan's former and current descriptions of her meeting with the president.

Lending credence to Sheehan's earlier positive account, Newsweek has reported that families in similar meetings have been impressed by Bush's "emotionalism and his sincerity." Inclusion of that fact would certainly have changed the tone of any story about Sheehan in The Times.

Sheehan's changing accounts of her meeting with Bush are relevant to understanding the president's decision not to meet with her again. So are her descriptions of the president in a Dallas speech reported by leftist newsletter Counterpunch as a "lying bastard," a "maniac" and the leader of a "destructive neocon cabal." In an article for CommonDreams.org, she called that supposed cabal "the "biggest terrorist outfit in the world."

She also has turned her son's death into a tax protest, refusing to pay her income taxes for 2004, the year her son died, reportedly saying in the Dallas speech: "You killed my son, George Bush, and I don't owe you a penny." Sheehan's use of such inflammatory rhetoric sheds light on why Bush likely sees little upside in a public confrontation with her. But you would never know about these statements from reading The Times' news pages.

Nor would you learn that Casey Sheehan reenlisted after the war started. And only The Times' April 2004 obituary for the 24-year-old Army specialist noted that he bravely volunteered for the rescue mission in which he was killed by terrorists.

Likewise, while The Times reported that Cindy's husband, Patrick Sheehan, has filed for divorce — which may or may not pertain to her recent activities — it has not mentioned that other members of Sheehan's family have clearly distanced themselves from her protest, as reported in the San Jose Mercury News.

Of course, hundreds of mothers across the country also continue to support the war despite having lost their own sons in Iraq. These mothers have no less moral authority than Cindy Sheehan, but their views have been sorely lacking in The Times' unbalanced coverage of Sheehan's protest.

Also missing is the perspective of Iraqis who lost loved ones to the bloodthirsty reign of Saddam Hussein, during which 300,000 to 1 million civilians were slaughtered. An Iraqi named Mohammed at the blog Iraq the Model (iraqthemodel.blogspot.com) recently explained the importance of that fact, in a moving message addressed to Sheehan: "Your face doesn't look strange to me at all; I see it every day on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours. Our fellow countrymen and women were buried alive, cut to pieces and thrown in acid pools and some were fed to the wild dogs….

"I ask you in the name of God or whatever you believe in; do not waste your son's blood."

Sheehan probably would gain more from a single meeting with Mohammed than a second meeting with Bush. Times readers also would benefit from occasional exposure to perspectives such as Mohammed's — as well as the missing facts about Sheehan's antiwar activism.

Rational people can disagree whether the war in Iraq is justified. But a newspaper's job is to report all relevant facts and present different perspectives, not just those that suit one particular viewpoint.

By that measure, The Times has woefully failed its readers with its one-sided coverage of the Cindy Sheehan story.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-tent21aug21,0,479855,print.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

Peacenik paper fawns over antiwar mom
By Patrick Frey Patrick Frey runs a blog called Patterico's Pontifications (www.patterico.com).
August 21, 2005
...
Also missing is the perspective of Iraqis who lost loved ones to the bloodthirsty reign of Saddam Hussein, during which 300,000 to 1 million civilians were slaughtered. An Iraqi named Mohammed at the blog Iraq the Model (iraqthemodel.blogspot.com) recently explained the importance of that fact, in a moving message addressed to Sheehan: "Your face doesn't look strange to me at all; I see it every day on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours. Our fellow countrymen and women were buried alive, cut to pieces and thrown in acid pools and some were fed to the wild dogs….
"I ask you in the name of God or whatever you believe in; do not waste your son's blood."

Sheehan probably would gain more from a single meeting with Mohammed than a second meeting with Bush. Times readers also would benefit from occasional exposure to perspectives such as Mohammed's — as well as the missing facts about Sheehan's antiwar activism.

Major kudos to this reporter for mentioning 'Iraq The Model' blog in his piece. If folks read that on a daily basis their perceptions on what's actually happening in Iraq will be changed to a more positive opinion.

I have held my tongue on the subject of Cindy Sheehan. Anyone who has lost a child is practically entitled to go off the rails, and I believe she has. Lefty or no, I feel great pity for her, and having known the loss of a loved one, I also feel great empathy for her; I made some terrible mistakes too, in the throes of grief. The agony, the rage too, can easily put one around the bend. Having been there, I cannot judge her harshly.
However. It is painfully clear that she is being worked like a puppet. The whole Mother Sheehan Traveling Circus and Salvation Show, is very reminiscent of the Wellstone memorial. Leftists latching on to a tragic mortal condition that should command respect and piety and dignity, and turning it into a tawdry little carnival.
Please. Let this wretched woman grieve, or go mad if she will, in private. Have some decency just once, Liberal Media. She is, after all, a human being, a mother, heartbroken and confused, as anyone can be rendered by life---but you are making sport of her, making her a thousand times more ridiculous than she could make herself alone, amplifying her foolishness and making a mockery of her torment, for the petty purpose of political leverage. For God's sake, quit playing with her, and let her be.
If you do, she may find a little peace.
And it's peace you devils claim to prize above all, isn't it?

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