First, let me say that as a parent, my heart goes out to Cindy Sheehan. No parent wants to outlive a child, for any reason, period. I’m truly as sorry for her loss as I am for those of any parent in similar circumstances, from this war and all others before it. I knew families whose sons didn’t return from Vietnam (my brother did, fortunately, and he’s a fine man for it) and my parents both knew many folks who never returned from Battaan, Normandy, and Inchon. Hell, I served 15 years in the “Peacetime Army”, and I lost friends. Frankly, the military is a hazardous occupation, but it is composed of volunteers. I say a prayer for every young man and woman of this new generation who are willing to put their own self-interests aside and serve something larger than themselves and their immediate needs. Bless them all.
Her adult son made the decision to join the military. From all accounts, he willingly went to Iraq to support something in which he believed, he accepted the potential consequences as part of that higher service, and was a good soldier. Bless him. Pray for him too.
Well, the sad truth is that he’s gone now, and she has to put that anger somewhere. I believe that she is now subconsciously trying to punish her son for his defiance of her (emphasis on her) values. In light of what has been revealed as her long-established leftist political perspective and activism, his decision to embrace a warrior culture was very likely an extremely unpopular one with his mother. In short, she was probably very angry with him.
Now, all she has left to focus that anger on is his memory. Anger is a secondary emotion that, among other origins, often grows out of fear and frustration. I’m sure she was scared for him, in the same manner as are all mothers left behind by warrior sons. And I’m sure that, upon his death, her frustration at her inability to tell him how hurt she was (by both his decision and his death) melded and festered into pure, white-hot anger. As is typical in our no-accountability society, it was easier to displace her anger at him, and at herself, than it was to face it and move forward. What better target for a classic American leftist than President Bush?
As long as she is unwilling to move forward, she will remain pathologically angry, and it will eventually consume her as certainly as any cancer. Anger and hate will kill her from the inside, far sooner than it will harm the object of her hatred. In the meantime, Casey Sheehan’s memory as a warrior is besmirched by her words and actions, the world of his comrades-in-arms is weakened by her words and actions, and his remaining family is apparently rent apart by her words and actions.
Unfortunately, she is being rewarded on some level by all of the current attention. I believe it’s as simple as vanity. In spite of her assertions to the contrary, she certainly appears to be basking in the attention. The fact that she is being exploited by others with far more sinister goals is beyond tragic, it’s reprehensible. Gleefully exploiting any mother’s grief for politics merely illustrates the lengths to which the left will go to discredit the President (as if that’s a surprise). Allowing them to do so over her son’s legacy for the sake of rubbing elbows with fame illustrates how morally bankrupt she truly has become.
That is one of the best things I have read on this subject.
As a two-tour combat veteran, I have to disagree with you. Casey Sheehan's memory as a soldier will always be held high in the hearts and minds of his fellow soldiers and they will remember him for his actions. The “world of his comrades-in-arms” you mentioned is a world that is composed every combat veteran, regardless of which conflict we were in, and that world is based on duty, honor, and service.
The words and actions of those who are not combat veterans and who do not, or cannot understand the meaning of duty, honor, and service can never tarnish that world, nor can they take away from any of us who we are or that which we have accomplished.
That world has been forged in the fires of hell, laid on the anvil of truth, pounded true with the hammer of adversity, and cooled with the blood and the tears of our comrades. No, his warrior spirit will still abide with his comrades, unblemished, undaunted, and undefeated.