Friday, August 12, 2005

An American Hero

The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command.
Charles Eliot Norton (1827 - 1908), writer, editor, and educator

For President Bush, questions about an exit strategy in Iraq have become especially delicate as a crowd of antiwar protesters has expanded at the edge of his ranch, rallying around Cindy Sheehan, the California woman whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.

See Bitch.Ph.d’s posts on Cindy Sheehan and checkout the links.

Sheehan is an American hero.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I am an award-winning journalist with a project, Ruminations on America, in which I have called for essays from coast to coast on true American core values and the current state of the union. One of the Veterans for Peace who traveled with Cindy Sheehan to Crawford wrote an essay. It is posted now along with photographs. I thought it might interest you, and I'd also like to invite you to participate in the project, www.ruminationsonamerica.blogspot.com

Jack Steiner said...

I am not sold on her at all. I cannot imagine the pain she is going through and I truly feel badly.

But I have some questions about all of this. Her son enlisted in the service, he was not drafted.

There has to be a certain amount of responsibility taken for doing so. If you enlist you do so with the knowledge that you may be placed in harms way.

And I recognize that there are levels within the armed forces, a cook may not expect to be in the same situation as a combat soldier. At least not until this war.

In any case, Bush did meet with her. Is there anything that he could say that would make her feel better. I don't think so.

Does that mean that I think that she does not deserve to be treated courteously and with respect? Absolutely not,she does.

Beyond that I admit to being irritated by comments that were attributed to her on Counterpunch regarding the source of terror.

If she did say those things than I am really very disappointed because it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of history, cause and effect.

Anyway, she is entitled to do what she is doing and even though I disagree I support her right to do so.

Her standing up is incredibly important, regardless of position.

The Misanthrope said...

I find her determination to again want to talk to the president admirable. The first time someone meets the president it must be a very intimidating moment. After a time to mull over the difference between his words and his actions, one(Sheehand)becomes angrier by the false sincerity.

Her son did sign up, but signed up to protect America not to be sent to an unnecessary and vengeful war. He died needlessly along with 1,800 other soldiers and Bush cannot explain that away.

As you mentioned, we can only imagine her pain, but we can’t feel the depth of her despair for losing a child to a lie that was told to the country and to the world.

Her courage and tenacity in wanting to speak the leader of our country is creating a groundswell against the war, something I am surprised hasn’t really happened before now. For this, she is an American hero.

Janet said...

Is this his vacation ranch? If so, nice work protestors.

Jack Steiner said...

Misanthrope,

I think that the problem with arguing that he was sent to die as part of an injust war is a harder argument to make.

A soldier's job is to serve, not to determine whether they think that the conflict they are involved in is just.

We can make a case against all war as being unjust.

My real issue here is that he enlisted, he volunteered. It was his decision.

To me it is similar to a cop complaining about being shot by someone.

It is not right and it is not fair, but they chose to put themselves in that situation and to me that is highly significant.

You and OTM are slightly older than I am, but not so much that I don't have my own memories of Vietnam. I have family and friends who served and I have heard every argument you can imagine about that.

I left for college in 1987. The Cold War was still on but from all appearances it seemed unlikely that we would go to war. I needed cash for college desperately.

But even under all of those circumstances I refused to enlist because I feared being forced to fight and perhaps die for something that I wasn't sure I wanted to be a part of.

Anyway, as I said even though I disagree with her I think that what she is doing is very important and a good example of standing up for what you believe in. It is an important part of our society.

The choice makes all the difference to me.

The Misanthrope said...

Jack, I think one has a faith and a belief that the country/the president will do the right thing, which when someone signs up for the military, you're signing up do to the right thing. I don't think we can say all wars are unjust, just the last two and I suspect the Korean war was unnecessary, but I would have to read a bit more on that.

This war made us an agressor nation, which we have rarely been in history.

What choice does the soldier have once enlisted to rebutt orders? I bet if soldiers today in Iraq were allowed to leave, a good number of them would because they no longer believe this was a just war. The government is doing a bait and switch on the soldiers.

Jack Steiner said...

I bet if soldiers today in Iraq were allowed to leave, a good number of them would because they no longer believe this was a just war.

That is a hard question to answer.

The Misanthrope said...

Jack, The main point is that Sheehan's son was needlessly killed in an unjust war and his mother is successfully protesting his death. Whether he signed up of his own free will does not lessen the senselessness of his death and this war.