Posted on 09/29/2005 7:11:01 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has become the face of the anti-war movement in the United States. While her grief is understandable, her rhetoric is outrageous.
As the mother of a son killed in battle in Iraq, she originally struck a sympathetic chord, whether you supported the war in Iraq or opposed it. One cannot help but empathize with the agony of a bereaved mother. But that has changed over the months, and I believe that many Americans who viewed her with sympathy no longer do so.
Many Americans, myself included, now see her as a person who has come to enjoy the celebratory status accorded to her by the radicals on the extreme left who see America as the outlaw of the world. These radicals are not content to be constructive critics. They are bent on destroying this country.
Some of them want to turn America into a radical socialist state. Others hope to create a utopia. But regardless of their agendas, how can Cindy Sheehan's supporters defend her shameful statement, "This country is not worth dying for."
While we recognize the U.S. is far from perfect, we are still head and shoulders above most other countries in the world in every respect. We remain the place where almost all others, given the chance, want to come to live. We continue to be the land of opportunity. We are the world's leading economy.
Yes, there is far too great a difference between the incomes of the rich and the poor. Yes, we haven't provided universal medical care as a matter of right for all of our citizens. Yes, minorities still suffer from discrimination socially, in housing, jobs and education.
But we have a political system that for more than 200 years has allowed the electorate to work its will through regularly held elections. The government follows the will of the people, or it will no longer stay in power.
Those who rail against the United States have simply failed to sell their message to the public at large. They keep losing elections, local as well as national. Rather than broadening their appeal, they have narrowed it.
I supported and still support the war in Iraq, because our Congress and president had every right to rely on the advice of the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On Sunday, September 25, 2005, Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" summed up the situation prevailing before the war, saying: "... post-September 11th, there was a fear of terrorism, an inability to know whether there were weapons of mass destruction by the public or by the media. George W. Bush said there were. Bill and Hillary Clinton said there were. The Russians, French and Germans, who opposed the war, said there were. Hans Blix of the U.N. said there were."
Iraq had fought an eight-year war against Iran resulting in a million casualties, using poison gas against the Kurds, who were citizens of Iraq, and against the Iranian army. Yes, since the 2003 invasion, we have not found any present supplies of WMD. Nevertheless, based on advice from CIA counterparts advising every member nation of the United Nations Security Council, the Security Council, including Syria, adopted Resolution 1441 unanimously, finding Iraq had weapons of mass destruction for which it had not accounted and advising Iraq that failure to account was cause for war.
Iraq refused to account for them to the U.N. We and our allies were right to invade, notwithstanding that other countries, terrified by the prospect of terrorism against them and tempted by corruption at the U.N. masterminded by Saddam Hussein through the Oil-for-Food program and lucrative vendor contracts with Hussein's regime, did not join us.
As I have often stated, we have accomplished our original goal to prevent Iraq from threatening us or its regional neighbors. We should declare victory and get out. Yes, there probably will be a civil war among the Kurds, Sunni and Shia. If the U.N. – which is still under a cloud because of the Oil-for-Food scandal – decides to take a military role in Iraq to stop the civil war, we can join them at that time.
Having accomplished our original mission, we should no longer be fulfilling the obligations of other countries, such as Germany and France, which have had a free ride to date. Even in Afghanistan the latter NATO allies do not participate in combat duty, leaving that and the ensuing casualties for the U.S. to bear.
President George W. Bush summed up his views on Iraq when he stated, "When the Iraqi army stands up, the American Army will stand down." I have low expectations of that happening in the immediate future. The estimates provided by the Bush administration on our getting out range from two to ten years. I do not believe we should wait that long, because of the casualties that would be involved. We should get out now, leaving the U.N. in charge. Although I believe that we should leave Iraq, I do not accept Sheehan's outrageous statements.
Sheehan has joined those who rail against Israel, labeling Israel as the culprit with her comment, "You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine and the terrorism will stop." Is that why Sunni and other terrorists have intentionally killed thousands of Shia civilians, labeling them, according to al-Zarkawi, infidels? Is that why Arab fundamentalists have declared war against all Christians and Jews?
According to Wikipedia, on August 15, 2005, on the Chris Matthews Show, Sheehan said "she would not have responded differently to her son's death had he died in Afghanistan rather than in Iraq. Sheehan argued that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was ‘almost the same thing as the Iraq war.'" Remember, the U.N. Security Council authorized the invasion of Afghanistan and the war against the Taliban government.
Sheehan's personal attacks on President Bush include comments in a speech on April 27, 2005, when she said: "We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We're waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush." Shameful.
According to Wikipedia, Sheehan wrote, "Casey was killed in the Global War of Terrorism waged on the world and its own citizens by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world: George and his destructive neo-con cabal."
In an interview on CBS, Sheehan referred to the foreign insurgents coming into Iraq, who are condemned as terrorists even by other Arab countries, as well as the U.S. and Great Britain, as "freedom fighters." On September 16, 2005, she said, "Pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq." On the one hand, she and her supporters urge that the National Guard be brought back from Iraq to be used in New Orleans, and on the other hand she condemns their use there now.
In addressing a veterans group on August 5, 2005, she demeaned herself with the use of truly outrageous remarks hurled at the president, describing him as "a lying bastard," "that jerk," "that filth spewer and war monger" and "that evil maniac."
Sheehan appeared this past weekend in Washington, D.C., leading the parade in a picture captured by the media that included Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond and Al Sharpton.
On Monday of this week, while Sheehan and her supporters were in Washington protesting at the White House against the presence of U.S. military forces in Iraq – those forces there at the request of the democratically elected Iraqi government – according to The New York Times, "Armed men dressed as police officers burst into a primary school in a town south of Baghdad on Monday, rounded up five Shiite teachers and their driver, marched them to an empty classroom and killed them, a police official said." Sheehan believes them to be "freedom fighters."
Of course, Sheehan has the right to state her opinion in a country she believes shouldn't be defended. We who disagree with her statements, we who believe this country deserves our thanks, love and willingness to defend it, also have the right to express our views. Speak up, America.
Edward I. Koch, author, lawyer and talk radio host, was a member of the U.S. Congress and, for 12 years, the 105th mayor of New York City.
No, the writer is wrong. Cindy Sheehan is the face of the current Democrat Party!!! Get used to it!!!
Then, our military losses would REALLY have been in vain.
I think Mayor Ed gets invited to too many whine and kitsch receptions over at the UN building.
Leni
Ed Koch has always been a straight shooter. Even when he was Mayor - he always would stop and talk to people on the street and say "How am I doing?". Did it to my mother once when she was on an escalator and she had great respect for the man and she was a Republican.
When my husband was a kid, he was a tour guide in NYC. Once while taking a bunch of Southern ladies on a tour of Manhattan they ran into Mayor Koch. He invited them to lunch in Chinatown and away they went!
I believe the little princess is now a well paid public
speaker.
That's a positive thing in our favor, Mr. Koch.
This internet craze of WSWOL is driving me nutz!
Moe is the smartest. He's Curly and Larry's boss.
"What does "MOE" mean?"
MOE is simply 1/3 of the team that includes LARRY AND CURLEY.
That's an internet falsehood. She raised Casey and had been married to his father since 1978, until they recently split up.
Ed Koch is an honest man who deeply loves his country. He has put in his time as a public servant and understands what it takes to run a large city well. He is a Democrat, but has voted for this Admistration and President Bush, because he truly believes the President's motives are to "preserve, protect and defend"! Thankyou Mayor Koch for your words of wisdom and good solid all American character!
Remember when she disappeared because her mother had a 'stroke'? Did she?
Good point. She did look like a grinning idiot in the recent pics. Thorazine? Risperdal? I'll go with Risperdal, that's the stuff they gave my mom to control her Alzheimer's and dementia. The difference is that my mom had a beautiful smile.
Of course it wouldn't be cool to pry into Cindy's mother's medical history, but I wouldn't be surprised if the stress didn't result in a stroke. Shitty's family must be horrified by her behavior.
We gurantee equal opportunity, not equal results.
Yes, we haven't provided universal medical care as a matter of right for all of our citizens.
Excuse me, but isn't that the socialism and or the utopia world the left wants?
Yes, minorities still suffer from discrimination socially, in housing, jobs and education.
The full weight of the Federal Government is prepared to come down hard on any one that discrimnates against any minority. If there is any discrimination going on, it is so far below the radar that it can not have any effect.
Now I will go back and read what else he has to say...
Her and all the left should be honored that good men and women feel differently.
Yes Cindy they think even people like you are worth defending..
But had he died in most of those battles, the weak-minded "patriots" would not be saying she had a "right" to espouse hatred for and endorse destruction of the United States government under the guise of free speech. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.
We had a reasonable debate despite having to scream above all the shouting. We agreed on everything except who should finish the job of being the peace keepers in Iraq.
This guy has a good head on his shoulders and is the type of person you can negotiate with. Unlike those crazed, over emotional America haters I saw over the weekend.
I personally don't believe that the UN will have the West's best interest in mind if they take over peace keeping but at least one Democrat has enough compassion to know that we can't leave the now free Iraqis to be slaughtered.
Where have all the logical thinking, freedom loving, compassionate, America loving Democrats gone? Their numbers are so few.
I don't have much respect for ol' Joe. He changed his stripes fast enough to run wif the Algore, I won't ever forget that. Plus he's an pro-abortion Orthodox, though he says he's now just "Observant" as if that makes abortion "ok".
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