I had hoped to get through the rest of my life without again discussing That Woman In Texas. But, some things need to be said. When this started, I thought that she was probably pushed over the edge by the loss of her son. But, as more information comes out about her politics prior to the tragic and heroic death of Casey Sheehan, it looks more and more like she is cynically using his memory to push a fundamentally distasteful and disastrously wrong-headed agenda.
Cindy Sheehan’s status as a grieving mother does not justify her borderline paranoid anti-Semitic views[*1] . Nor does it excuse her Stockholm Syndrome-like characterization of those who killed her son as “freedom fighters.”[*2] Nor does it excuse her disingenuous attempt to hijack the Gold Star Mothers[*3] organization’s good name and lash it to her campaign. The Gold Star Mothers[*4] can speak for themselves:
Cindy Sheehan is currently in the news. She and her organization have no connection whatever with American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. We are a 501 C(3) organization and, as such, do not engage in political activities. We do support our troops. After all, they are our children. More on gold star mothers vs American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.
Some of us have forgotten what Thomas Jefferson and the Founders knew:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”[*5]
Perhaps the anti-war people simply wish that this was not the way of the world. But whether tyranny comes in the form of a musket carried by a British Redcoat, or an airliner flown by a radical Islamic terrorist, or a mullah spouting violent jihad from a mosque, it is tyranny nonetheless. As previously posted here, Iraq along with Syria are keystones in the militant Islamic war plan. That is why we’re there.
Some wars are worth fighting. The pacifist crowd naively shouts that “war doesn’t solve anything.” They are wrong. War gave the U.S. independence from Britain. War defeated Nazi Germany and militarist Japan. War toppled the repugnant Taliban. War removed the monster Saddam Hussein.
And what about the Iraq war, anyway? I direct your attention to the Congressional Resolution[*6] which authorized the war:
Whereas after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, Iraq entered into a United Nations sponsored cease-fire agreement pursuant to which Iraq unequivocally agreed, among other things, to eliminate its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs and the means to deliver and develop them, and to end its support for international terrorism;
Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated;
Whereas Iraq, in direct and flagrant violation of the cease-fire, attempted to thwart the efforts of weapons inspectors to identify and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction stockpiles and development capabilities, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of inspectors from Iraq on October 31, 1998;
Whereas in Public Law 105-235 (August 14, 1998), Congress concluded that Iraq’s continuing weapons of mass destruction programs threatened vital United States interests and international peace and security, declared Iraq to be in `material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations’ and urged the President `to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations’;
Whereas Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations;
Whereas Iraq persists in violating resolution of the United Nations Security Council by continuing to engage in brutal repression of its civilian population thereby threatening international peace and security in the region, by refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq, including an American serviceman, and by failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait;
Whereas the current Iraqi regime has demonstrated its capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people;
Whereas the current Iraqi regime has demonstrated its continuing hostility toward, and willingness to attack, the United States, including by attempting in 1993 to assassinate former President Bush and by firing on many thousands of occasions on United States and Coalition Armed Forces engaged in enforcing the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council;
Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;
Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;
Whereas the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, underscored the gravity of the threat posed by the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by international terrorist organizations;
Whereas Iraq’s demonstrated capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction, the risk that the current Iraqi regime will either employ those weapons to launch a surprise attack against the United States or its Armed Forces or provide them to international terrorists who would do so, and the extreme magnitude of harm that would result to the United States and its citizens from such an attack, combine to justify action by the United States to defend itself;
That, Mrs. Sheehan, is why your son died. Not for oil, not for Israel, not for the ‘neo-cons.’
The real tragedy of this episode is not the heroic death of Casey Sheehan[*7] , who volunteered to serve in the U.S. military against his mother’s wishes, re-enlisted, and volunteered to go on the mission which ended his life. It is the completion of his mother’s descent into the false comfort of self-righteous appeasement. Does she have the right to do this? Absolutely–this is America. Do I have the right to say I think she’s dangerously deluded? I think so.
Who is right? What happens if I’m wrong? What happens if she’s wrong? These are the questions that we as a free people need to be discussing.
