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THE RIGHT'S SHAMEFUL SPIN ON CINDY SHEEHAN'S VIGIL
Local Anti-War Vigil quietly draws 1000 as Republican Shills attack Mother of slain soldier
by Les Nakamoto
August 29, 2005

There was a candlelight vigil held, north of the War Memorial in Milwaukee, on Lincoln Memorial Drive from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 in support of Cindy Sheehan's vigil along the road to President Bush's ranch near Crawford, Texas. An estimated 1,000 people attended, far more than the few hundred that one television reporter who covered the event very early in the evening. 

One major difference between this vigil and others in the past year or two was, that of all the drivers coming past the group, there were only three that I saw during that entire time that were vocally in support of Bush. One drove by with a large campaign sign and a flag hanging out their window, cheering for Bush. Another claimed they supported our troops (we are in support of our troops, but apparently they believe that in order to support them, they have to send them to their deaths or dismemberment in a fraudulent war). The third drove by yelling "Yeaaaa, Iraq!" 

Fortunately, the vast majority of the cars honked their horns repeatedly and gave us the thumbs up or a "V" peace sign while shouting their support of our vigil. The remainder that weren't supportive of us, and were obviously supportive of Bush, wouldn't even look at us, acting like we weren't even there. No one flipped us off, yelled epithets or tried to run us over like they did in the past. Looks like the tide has turned and they know it. 

The notification for this vigil went out on Monday, and between then and Wednesday, there were over 1,400 vigils organized and held in support of Sheehan across the country, all at the same time. 

Some right wingers now claim that Cindy Sheehan is being used as a puppet by liberals, because liberals support her position. Of course, when right wingers latched onto Terry Schiavo, they denied that THEY were using Terry Schiavo. (They claimed that everyone has a right to live - regardless of the rights of the husband or the family, or whether the expenses incurred in taking heroic medical action were beyond the financial reach of the vast majority of Americans because Republicans have consistently denied access to health care for 43 million Americans). 

I guess selling the list of Schiavo donors, by Response Unlimited, to direct marketing firms doesn't count as her being used by right wing ideologues (as reported in the March 29, 2005 New York Times). 

(Note: Terry Schiavo's treatment over the past 15 years was made possible by a medical malpractice lawsuit which gave $1 million to her husband, $700,000 of which was placed into a trust to pay for Terry Schiavo's healthcare. The Republicans in Congress, you may recall, have been pushing for limits on medical malpractice awards that would only give a maximum of $250,000. The legislation would prevent any family that wasn't independently wealthy, including one like the Schiavo's, from being able to provide the healthcare that had kept her alive for 15 years.) 

Right wingers are also claiming that, because Cindy Sheehan had already met President Bush once, she didn't have the right to meet with him again. I wonder what their reasoning was when they claimed that they had the right on behalf of Terry Shiavo to force 16 court actions - to have Governor Jeb Bush step in to block a court order allowing Schiavo's husband to take her off life support; to pass a bill in the Florida House attempting to keep Terry Schiavo alive (which failed in the Florida Senate); to petition the Florida Supreme Court twice; to file three petitions of the U.S. Supreme Court; to spur legislative action by the U.S. Congress; to have President Bush come back to Washington, D.C., from a vacation in Crawford to speak to a special session of Congress and sign legislation; and to instigate numerous investigations that would become failed attempts to find evidence of attempted physical abuse or attempted murder. 

Cindy Sheehan is trying to make an appeal to President Bush and the American Public to see if she can stop senseless deaths. President Bush isn't listening. He claims he "just needs to get on with his life." Besides, it would interrupt his vacation. 

RIGHT TO LIFE AND DEATH TOLLS 
Cindy Sheehan is not talking about just one innocent woman in a vegetative state. 

She is talking about over 100,000 innocent Iraqis, men, women and children killed (if you believe the U.S. government figures. Sources in Iraq put the number at 200,000 Iraqis.) The US Government claims that they don't keep an accurate count of enemy or civilian deaths. 

She is talking about 1,867 American Military deaths that the U.S. Government is willing to acknowledge. 

She is talking about 13,877 American Military wounded that our government is willing to acknowledge. Others estimate that number to be between 15,000 and 42,500. 

Ten percent of the American presence in Iraq is civilian contractors doing work that the U.S. military would ordinarily do. Their numbers of dead and wounded aren't being reported by the U.S. Government. 

BUSH, NOT SHEEHAN, DAMAGED AMERICAN MORALE Right wing detractors claim that Cindy Sheehan and her supporters are not supporting the troops and hurting morale here at home, which puts our American military in danger. 

I don't know how military morale could be hurt more than to learn that the U.S. Commander-in-Chief lied to fight a fraudulent war that has lined his buddies' pockets with oil and weapons manufacturing profits. The war in Iraq is a conflict that was supposed to last "weeks, rather than months" according to Vice-President Dick Cheney, but has now been expanded to a global "war that will not end in our lifetimes." The later statement also came from Cheney. 

I also don't know how Sheehan's critics can possibly come up with any figures to determine how Cindy's questioning of the rationale for war (which is really Congress's job, one they obviously didn't do) had caused any deaths of our soldiers. 

On the other hand, we do know that as of May 1, 2003, when Bush announced that all major combat operations were over and congratulated our troops on their "Mission Accomplished," there were 139 fatalities from March 20 - May 1, 2003. There have been 1811 American Military deaths since that announcement. 

On July 2, 2003, President Bush announced "Bring Them On" in a taunt to the enemy to attack our troops. Since then 1,651 American military troops have been killed. 

I think there is far more evidence that Bush's rash machismo and false bravado has caused more American deaths than anyone questioning the sanity of his policies. Remember, this president was an Air Force reservist who received $1 million in taxpayer financed training to fly fighter jets, then went AWOL and did not report for duty for the better part of a year and a half (1972-73). 

After the vigil, at about 8:30, as the traffic dwindled and roadway lights along the boulevard were being turned off, we gathered at Veterans Park, near the Vietnam Vets Memorial. There were short statements made by Julie Enslow and George Martin of Peace Action, the coordinators of the event, and Mike and Penny Mykytka of Twin Lakes, Wis., whose son survived his tour in Iraq but died of cancer from exposure to toxic agents in the war after he returned. The Mykytkas had just returned from Crawford, where they had gone to support Sheehan on her vigil when they heard that federal officials were about to arrest her. 

Peace Action's Enslow commented on another mother, whose son returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, and told his mother that he had killed women and children. She later found him in the garage. He had hung himself. 

Maybe it's time for our "leaders" in the Bush-Cheney Administration to show us how important the sacrifices they expect us to make are by making those same sacrifices themselves. We need to finally understand that if our "leaders" aren't willing to make the same sacrifices that they expect of us, they do not have the courage, nobility, patriotism and love of country that those who have made those sacrifices have, and simply don't deserve the privilege of "leading" us.