The Sheehan Imbroglio

My beloved alma mater has a dorm in the quad named Sheehan Hall. Perhaps if they offered to rename the place after Casey Sheehan, his mother might leave Crawford, Texas -- and the press would quit assaulting us with her vigil.

Do I feel sorry for Cindy Sheehan? Hell, yes. The woman's got to be suffering. But so does any parent who loses their child, under any circumstance. And yes, it's probably particularly painful to lose her son fighting in a war that she does not support.

But we've passed the point of absurd in this story. Sheehan has met with the President in the past -- my guess is that most of the parents who have lost loved ones have not had that opportunity at all. And her prior meeting, in June of 2004, left her feeling much better...

Surreal soon seemed like an understatement, as the Sheehans - one of 17 families who met Thursday with Bush - were whisked in a matter of days to the Army post and given the VIP treatment from the military. But as their meeting with the president approached, the family was faced with a dilemma as to what to say when faced with Casey's commander-in-chief.

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."

The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey's sacrifice would make the world a safer place.

But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. In addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn't stumping for votes or trying to gain a political edge for the upcoming election.

"We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn't have to take the time to meet with us," Pat said.

Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting. Shortly after Casey died, Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture.

"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

While meeting with Bush, as well as Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was an honor, it was almost a tangent benefit of the trip. The Sheehans said they enjoyed meeting the other families of fallen soldiers, sharing stories, contact information, grief and support.

For some, grief was still visceral and raw, while for others it had melted into the background of their lives, the pain as common as breathing. Cindy said she saw her reflection in the troubled eyes of each.

"It's hard to lose a son," she said. "But we (all) lost a son in the Iraqi war."

The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

Now, Cindy Sheehan is free to change her mind as to whether the President was sincere, but it at least seems disingenous to attack him the way she has, and insist on another meeting so she can berate him. And before we embrace her as a normal mom mourning for her son in an extrodinarily public way, let's peruse some of her comments in recent months. Check out these lines from a rally in April to support Lynne Stewart, the convicted radical lawyer...

We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush.

... You know, they never have to think of the war, and I’ll never, ever forget this war. I can never forget it, even when I’m sleeping {tears} I know that we’re in a war and I know that George Bush and his band of neo-cons and their neo-con agenda killed my son. And I’ll never, ever, ever forget.

I take responsibility partly for my son’s death, too. I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people, like my sister over here says, since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bullshit to my son and my son enlisted. I’m going all over the country telling moms: “This country is not worth dying for. If we’re attacked, we would all go out. We’d all take whatever we had. I’d take my rolling pin and I’d beat the attackers over the head with it. But we were not attacked by Iraq. {applause} We might not even have been attacked by Osama bin Laden if {applause}. 9/11 was their Pearl Harbor to get their neo-con agenda through and, if I would have known that before my son was killed, I would have taken him to Canada. I would never have let him go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have. The people are good, the system is morally repugnant.

And lest you think she had ingested some of the fumes floating around, she managed to call our government a "fascist state" during a teleconference scheduled last week. Not that this should be surprising, considering that said call was moderated and organized by folks like Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former campaign manager. Glad to see that the Democrats haven't decided to use Cindy Sheehan as a propaganda tool.

The President's response last week was perfectly correct...

Addressing the media in Crawford, Bush said, "I understand the anguish that some feel about the death that takes place.

"I also have heard the voices of those saying: 'Pull out now!'" he said. "And I've thought about their cry and their sincere desire to reduce the loss of life by pulling our troops out. I just strongly disagree."

Immediate withdrawal "would send a terrible signal to the enemy," the president said.

"I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan," Bush said. "She feels strongly about her position, and she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position, and I thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is: Get out of Iraq now. And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so."

You can disagree with Bush on the question of whether we should stay in Iraq. But I don't think W. needs to spend his time meeting with every person with a grievance against him due to the war. For that matter, why would Cindy Sheehan get a chance to meet the President, instead of you or I? I understand that she lost her son, but one of the great things about this country is that we tend to believe that the substance of one's opinion should be judged independently of who that person is. Ms. Sheehan's experience clearly informs her opinion, but it does not it make it any more valid than that of anyone else. The media has finally begun to take note of parents of soldiers who died who disagree with Cindy, as evidenced here and here (hell, Casey Sheehan's other family members disagree with his mom). Based on the idiotic assertion by left-wing dishrag harpie/opinion columnist Maureen Dowd that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute", I guess morality really is relative (please, think about that quote for a moment -- and try and figure whether the Times has an IQ test for its editorial columnists).

The only reason Ms. Sheehan received more publicity is her desire to be a public spectacle and a willing press. I'm not willing to listen any longer, partly out of sympathy and partly out of disgust. The latter will soon outweigh the former.