The Individualist: See Ya Cindy

Posted by Joe Rivett on 05.30.2007

Cindy Sheehan recently announced she is leaving politics. As someone who is against the Iraq War, I am happy.

As someone who is against the Iraq War, one would think that I would be sad to see Cindy Sheehan go or that this would be a positive column about the mother of peace. This will not be a positive column about Cindy Sheehan. I promise it won't be hateful either. Although I feel bad for Cindy Sheehan's loss, I did not like her politics. I feel that she did a horrible job at advocating for the end of the Iraq War and her speaking out did nothing but change the discussion toward her beef with Bush rather than whether or not a troop withdrawal would be the right decision.

My first problem with Cindy Sheehan is how she misrepresents the anti-war segment of the population. She was like the Jerry Falwell of the anti-war movement. I never liked Jerry Falwell because when I tell people that I am a religious Christian, I don't want people to think I am anything like Falwell. The same rings true for Cindy Sheehan; when I tell people I am against the Iraq War, I don't want people thinking that I share the same beliefs as Cindy Sheehan because I don't.

Cindy Sheehan isn't just against the Iraq War, but she is against all war. She opposed the US involvement in disposing of the Taliban. Even liberal Democrats supported the US invasion of Afghanistan. But that is okay Cindy, I can understand for religious reasons that you may be opposed to the Afghanistan War, after all Jesus told us to love our enemies. It is something the average Christian struggles with. The problem is that Cindy did not know who the real enemy was. If you don't like Bush, then fine, but don't pretend that Hugo Chavez is an honorable man. Cindy had this to say about Hugo Chavez:

"I admire President Chavez for his strength to resist the United States. Instead, Bush is waging a war of terrorism against the world."

Cindy Sheehan in my mind will always be remembered for the stupid and outlandish comments she has made. As much as I do not like the presidency of George W Bush, it is quite a stretch to call him a terrorist. But Cindy Sheehan had no problem referring to George Bush as a terrorist:

1. "The biggest terrorist in the world is George W Bush."
2. "I was told my son was killed in the war on terror. He was killed by George Bush's war of terror on the world."
3. "Why would I want one more mother -- either Iraqi or American -- to go through what I'm going through? I don't want him to justify my son's honorable sacrifice to continue his murderous killing policies."

George Bush may be grossly incompetent. George Bush may be foolish. George Bush may have bitten off more than he can chew. However, George Bush is not a murderous terrorist. I don't believe the Iraq War was an excuse for Bush to kill innocent civilians nor do I believe Bush is targeting innocent civilians. Many Iraqi civilians have died as a result of this war, but if Bush had the power, I'm sure he would not want that to happen.

Another aspect I never liked about Cindy Sheehan was the way she attracted attention. She originally hung out in Crawford Texas for the opportunity to ask George Bush why her son was killed and what the justification of the war was. Cindy was pretending to be a mother that wanted answers but she had the answers when she stated:

"Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by George [W.] Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11."

I guess you knew the answer after all Cindy. If Israel was the reason for this war, then why did you feel the need to ask the president yourself? She knew Bush was never going to meet with her and if he did, would that have stopped Cindy Sheehan? I doubt it.

I'm no expert on how to properly oppose a war but Cindy Sheehan just rubbed me the wrong way when she made comments like:

"My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don't owe you a penny...you give my son back and I'll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we'll put this war on trial."

Admitting to a felony is not a good way to go about protesting a war. Do I get to not pay taxes because I don't want my money to go to corporations?

The tragedy about Cindy Sheehan is that she had a lot of good things to say about the War. But by making these outlandish comments, she was never able to bring attention to the real concerns many in the anti-war movement have. Here are some of Cindy's good and/or appropriate statements:

"If you fall on the side that is pro-George, and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out."

I have always believed that if you feel that this war is the most defining moment of the century and truly more important than anything else, you should be enlisting and not telling me this.

"We need to bring our troops home immediately, as soon as possible."

While you can certainly argue against this belief, it isn't inappropriate or ridiculous.

"I believe that any candidate who supports the war should not receive our support. It doesn't matter if they're Senator Clinton or whoever."

This is a great quote because it shows that Cindy Sheehan is not a partisan hack of the Democratic Party.

"We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy ... not for the real reason, because the Arab Muslims who attacked us hate our Middle-Eastern foreign policy."

I think Ron Paul would agree with this sentiment. There is a reason why the US was attacked and Canada was not attacked. Freedom has nothing to do with it, they hate America's role in the Mid East whether or not it is positive or negative.

So Cindy Sheehan has made some good points. But overall, by referring to George Bush as the number one terrorist, Cindy Sheehan made herself irrelevant to the Left, the Center, and the Right. Unfortunately, for Cindy Sheehan, her dumb comments received far more attention than her smart comments. Nobody other than the far-Left was going to take her criticisms seriously.

Cindy Sheehan is calling it quits from protesting. The irony is that now that she is gone, an end of the War may finally begin to come to fruition. Instead of Cindy Sheehan representing the anti-war movement, Russ Feingold, Chuck Hagel and others who have the power and the sensibility to not say anything detrimental will become the leaders of the movement. Politicians cannot ignore the fact that over 70% think this war is going badly.

And when this War ends and the majority of the troops come home, it won't be Cindy I'll be thanking, it will be the over 70% of Americans that I'll be thanking. Other than George W Bush, no one person has the power to stop a war and I think Cindy Sheehan finally came to grips with that fact.