The Tri-Valley Herald laments the passing of Cindy Sheehan from the public stage — i.e., her 15 minutes is definitely over. The Herald notes,
But after drawing the international spotlight in Camp Casey in Crawford, her name is fading from headlines.
. . .
She attracted what in essence became a traveling troupe of anti-war activists and p.r. agents and usual suspects, and the story just ceased to be as appealing, [University of Virginia professor Larry] Sabato said. It didn’t seem quite as natural and original, it became more of the same.
Before Cindy Sheehan passes completely out of view, however, lets not forget what she stood for.
Remember fondly the time Sheehan summarized her views at an anti-war gathering at San Francisco State University,
America has been killing people on this continent since it was started. This country is not worth dying for.
Besides which the United States was simply fighting a proxy war. As she said in a letter to Ted Koppel (whom she felt treated her unfairly and did not thank her profusely enough for her appearance on Nightline),
Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel.
If it weren’t for the U.S. support of Israel’s policies visa vis the Palestinians, Sheehan reminded us, there would not be any terrorism.
Or remember the time she told CBS News’ Mark Knoller that foreign terrorists entering Iraq were freedom fighters,
But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [the U.S. government] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country.
And it was not just Iraq, Sheehan reminded us. The Iraq war was just a continuation, after all, of the imperialist war of aggression in Afghanistan,
[CHRIS] MATTHEWS: Can I ask you a tough question? A very tough question.
SHEEHAN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: All right. If your son had been killed in Afghanistan, would you have a different feeling?
SHEEHAN: I don’t think so, Chris, because I believe that Afghanistan is almost the same thing. We’re fighting terrorism. Or terrorists, we’re saying. But they’re not contained in a country. This is an ideology and not an enemy. And we know that Iraq, Iraq had no terrorism. They were no threat to the United States of America.
MATTHEWS: But Afghanistan was harboring, the Taliban was harboring al-Qaida which is the group that attacked us on 9/11.
SHEEHAN: Well then we should have gone after al-Qaida and maybe not after the country of Afghanistan.
MATTHEWS: But that’s where they were being harbored. That’s where they were headquartered. Shouldn’t we go after their headquarters? Doesn’t that make sense?
SHEEHAN: Well, but there were a lot of innocent people killed in that invasion, too. … But I’m seeing that we’re sending our ground troops in to invade countries where the entire country wasn’t the problem. Especially Iraq. Iraq was no problem. And why do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we’re looking for a select group of people in that country?
So I believe that our troops should be brought home out of both places where we’re obviously not having any success in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and that’s who they told us was responsible for 9/11.
And, of course, Sheehan was the first to note the evil hands of the neo-cons on American soil when the National Guard was sent in to New Orleans to maintain order following Hurricane Katrina. Sheehan urged the Bush administration to, “Pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq.”
Presumably if it had not been for U.S. support of Israel, Hurricane Katrina never would have had to hit Louisiana at all.
Its too bad Sheehan is so quickly leaving the public consciousness and that we will no longer be treated to such eloquent pearls of wisdom.
Sources:
Peace mom slips from public stage. Josh Richman, Tri-Valley Herald, October 18, 2005.
Cindy: Terrorists ‘freedom fighters’. Joe Kovacs, World Net Daily, August 23, 2005.