I have discovered new information that has been supported on a few different websites that has infuriated me even further regarding Ms. Sheehan.
She and the President have already met! On the taxpayers dime she and a few other families of soldiers lost in combat were flown to the President so that he could have a private meeting with them. This was not a publicity stunt by President Bush, which is why we have not heard that the "Peace Mom" has already been granted her audience with the leader of the free world!
In fact, many of the reports I read said that she was pleased with their meeting and knew that President Bush really cared. Shortly after their meeting a columnist wrote about her son. That columnist subsequently received an email from Ms Sheehan requesting that the media not write about or mention her son!
What has changed?! Why does this previously private grieving mom suddenly have national attention? Why has she been supplied with people to screen the various news organizations that want to speak with her? Why has she met with CNN, Larry King, and been interviewed by Moveon.org but not with Foxnews or Bill O'Reilly?
So now I add the following questions to my previous one:
(Previous Question)How can the war be a lie and those who died for that lie be a hero?
If Ms. Sheehan has already met with the President, why is she demanding another meeting?
What has changed for Ms. Sheehan that she once was very private not desiring any media attention and now she is shouting her anti-war, anti-Bush opinion from the rooftops?
And a question that perhaps some people have an answer for: If we completely pull out of Iraq now, what will happen to that region? How do we keep that area stable without an active democratic government in Iraq?
Whether the war was ethical or moral or not, have we not made a mess that we need to clean up?
And those questions betray my opinion!
15 comments:
Hero seems to have lost its power to describe and enshrine anything. Given that we have a volunteer army, just getting shot or even severly maimed does not make you a hero. Doing something above the call of duty, that makes one a hero. But, of course, with no recognition set aside, with no word in place to call that sort of self-sacrifice, are we actually discouraging such action?
well it seems that you miss the point entirely, but good for you for know doing the leg work thats more than most people would do
Marc, looks like you've been hit by some of the spam that we noticed last night on our blog. I'm not sure how this happens. perhaps blogger buzz will have something.
I'm not sure Blue makes any sense at all. I thought he was a spammer. Say, how did you delete those posts?
Marc,
Glad to see you blogging. Now it's as if I never left your side at CBD. Our conversation is right where it left off...
Josh
First let me state that while I do not agree with Mrs. Sheehan's actions nor her views I do not think you give her the credit she deserves. What changed for her after that first meeting, is what has changed for many Americans since the Iraq war started. 1) There were no WMD in Iraq 2) As the 9/11 Commission concluded-There was no evidence of an Iraq-al Qaea alliance or any cooperation against the US or in 9/11 3) Iraq was not responsible for 9/11 (as the President and his administration implied in the run up to the war) 4)Even when the insurgency has claimed more lives that the actual war, the president has refused to accept that he made a mistake in not accepting the proposition by Gen, Shinseki that in order to safeguard Iraq we would need at a minimum more that 250,000 boots on teh ground. We were not welcomed as liberators (except for the first week when we arrived in Baghdad). She wants to know, in the face of all that has gone wrong and has been proven wrong, why did her son died.
As I said, I do not agree with her views, or positions but do think that her questions (and indeed the questions of now more than 60% of Americans deserve an answer). The president as I have recently posted in my blog, the president needs to take responsibility for the decisions he has made and level with the American people, otherwise it is likely that we will not win this war.
Also remember that as Teddy Roosevelt once said "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." President Theodore Roosevelt, 1918"
Finally as Governor George Bush said of the Kosovo campaign "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." --On the Kosovo Campaign, Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)
Excerpt from my blog:
That said, the president must come out, admit his mistakes and demonstrate to us all that he has learned from them. Otherwise, we will continue with the current strategy of tough talk, big words, lofty ideals and not enough progress to back them up. This is particularly important as we are asking our young men and women to place their lives on the line far away from home and their families. As such, they need to know and trust that we are doing the best we can to finish and win this war as quickly as possible. It is the least we can do for them. They are protecting our freedom and our way of life. That is why the president should cease avoiding responsibility and instead be the leader we all thought he could be. A no nonsense guy who gets things done in the most efficient and quickest manner possible. So far, he has fallen very short of that standard.
Thom, you should have a little garbage can beneath the posts. That is how you delete them.
To NYKrinDC:
I'm not upset that she is questioning the president. I want to know, from her own lips, why A)She hasn't said that she already met with him and she is acting as though he won't meet with her at all. B)This woman was once VERY private is now VERY public! What caused the major change! She can disagree with the President all she wants but something has caused her to go against her previous character and that is suspect!
C) You seem to disagree with the war but you didn't answer my final two questions: What happens if we DO leave? Isn't this our mess that we need to clean up?!
Personally, I'm thinking there may be some money involved. Either that or she's lost it or the initial "I don't want to be in the media" was all a farce.
Just learned something new today ... Sheehan said President Bush had no right to send her son over there without her permission; Bush supporters retort that he signed up voluntarily knowing the risks. Anti-Bush usually retort that many of the soldiers were reactivated against their will, they signed up under Clinton and didn't know Bush would do this, blah blah blah (as though they didn't realize that Clinton wouldn't be in there forever and someday there would be a different administration with the power to reactivate them). Anyway, here's the point ... Sheehan's son REENLISTED in 2004 when his service was up. He voluntarily reenlisted to serve his country after the war in Iraq was begun ... which says to me that regardless of what his mother now says, he had a very different opinion than hers.
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