Bill Quick links to a New York Sunarticle on Cindy Sheehan, who is using her son's death as a political prop to bash President Bush over the war. (Casey Sheehan was a soldier killed in Iraq.) He then notes that her activities (which her family vehemently disavows, and which her son would likely not countenance) serve only to profane her son's memory. By blatently politicizing the issue, she becomes a valid target of criticism.
Like Michael Berg (father of the murdered Nick Berg) and the families involved in the left-wing Peaceful Tomorrows group, she is using the deaths of a family member as a shield against their protests. Any criticism of them is immediately cast as unfair and malicious, which is intended to allow them to make their claims with impunity. Sorry, but I'm not playing any more. Sheehan, Berg, and the Peaceful Tomorrows people have engaged in the political grandstanding for which they criticized Bush, only in a far more shameful and mean-spirited fashion. Bush Derangement Syndrome is not a blanket excuse, either. They have relentlessly attacked Bush, his cabinet, and his supporters since September 11th, and it's time to return the rhetorical balance by denouncing them in kind.
UPDATE: Read this, by Varifrank. It is far more eloquent and far more moving than anything I could possibly have written on this subject, and it is also far more devastating to Cindy Sheehan's position, without ever descending into ridicule or cruelty. It looks at some of the facts behind Casey Sheehan's motivations, and how they don't align with his mother's current story.
posted on August 11, 2005 01:50 PM
