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“If
you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and
gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it
will blow up everything in its way.”
--
Emile Zola, French author
The
incomparable
Raw Story website is publishing a letter it acquired on Tuesday,
August 9, from 16 Democratic Representatives (whose number has now
burgeoned to 38) urging George Bush to meet with Cindy Sheehan, whose son,
Casey, was slain in Iraq in 2002. Sheehan has been camped on Bush's
doorstep since Saturday when she and a small group of supporters were
forced to walk in a ditch struggling through knee-deep weeds as they made
their way to Prairie Chapel, the Bush "ranch," a former pig farm in
Crawford, Texas.
According to The Iconoclast, Bush's
hometown paper, Sheehan said she decided to go to Crawford because of
comments Bush made which coincided with the deaths of 12 Marine reservists
from Ohio who were killed in perhaps the deadliest roadside bombing of
U.S. troops in Iraq. Sheehan was outraged at Bush's remarks to about 1,800
members of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Grapevine on Aug.
3 that the men and women who’ve lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan
died in a noble and selfless cause.
“We
all know by now that that’s not true, and I want to ask George Bush, ‘Why
did my son die? What was the noble cause that he died for?’” said Sheehan.
“I don’t want [President Bush] to use my son’s name or my family name to
justify any more killing or to exploit my son’s name, my son’s sacrifice,
or my son’s honor to justify more killing. As a mother, why would I want
one more mother to go through what I’m going through, Iraqi or American?
“And I
want to tell him that the only way to honor my son’s sacrifice is to bring
the troops home now.”
There
are few things more relentless this side of Hell than an August Texas sun.
Unless it would be the lost souls of Fallujah crying out for justice
through the Napalm flames. Or perhaps it is a mother so engulfed in grief
at the cruel and needless loss of her child that her primal screams
reverberate throughout the world. Except at the pig farm. Or within the
entire US Senate. Or on the deaf ears of all but 38 of the 435
representatives in the US House.
The
initial 16 -- one representative for each word Bush used to lie us onto
the New World Order killing fields -- are John Conyers, George Miller,
Maxine Waters, Corrine Brown, Dennis Kucinich, Carolyn Maloney, Jim
McDermott, Jim McGovern, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Peter Oberstar, John
Lewis, Bernie Sanders, Bob Filner, Micheal Honda, and Raul Grijalva. I
have searched in vain for Nancy Pelosi, Cynthia McKinney, Charlie Rangel
-- searched for just one Republican who would ask Bush to meet with the
mother of a slain soldier...
Six
soldiers and marines were killed today. Four yesterday. In just 10 days of
August, 44 Americans and many, many more innocent Iraqis have been
murdered. We don't "do" body counts of Iraqi citizens, so there's no way
of knowing how many have died, but we do know that more than four soldiers
and marines have been slaughtered in a single day -- every day. The pig
farm president may not know where his children are tonight, but Casey
Sheehan knows where his mother is -- sweltering in 100-plus-degree weather
on a desolate prairie -- ignored by the commander-in-chief -- but still
out there, bravely supporting the troops.
There
are many mothers whose anguish matches Sheehan's, not only those who have
lost children, but those whose children are returning broken and maimed;
doomed to lives of desperation and pain. Mothers like Sandy Briggs, from
Keokuk, Iowa, whose son, Sgt. Robert Briggs, a soldier in the 224th
Engineer Battalion, was hit by shrapnel from an artillery round April 16
at Iraq's Camp Ramadi.
According to the Burlington, Iowa,
newspaper, The Hawkeye, "Surgeons took one of his eyes. The
other is partially blind. Head trauma paralyzed his left side. Metal
litters his body...An operation removed part of his skull. Now he wears a
helmet to get out of bed."
Bush
says he "grieves 'n mourns" for the dead and maimed. His "thoughts 'n
prayers" go out to them. He 'preciates them making the ultimate sacrifice
for his noble cause. Many, however, are beginning to think Bush has a
strange way of showing his compassion. He has not attended a single
funeral of the now 1,848 Americans who have died in Iraq because of his
lies and lack of planning, and he continues to stubbornly "ditch" Sheehan
as she keeps a lonely vigil on the Texas plains.
Bush
might wish later that he had come out to meet with Sheehan upon her
arrival Saturday when there was but a handful of supporters accompanying
her. If the media covered the meeting at all, he would have been portrayed
as a caring president, and by Sunday it would all have been over. But that
isn't how Bush operates. He does not negotiate; remember, his will is
strong, his resolve will not be broken. Bush is not satisfied until
everything he touches turns into a steaming, odious pile of bullshit. He
made the cowardly choice to send out a couple of minions -- national
security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe
Hagin -- to tell her that Bush really really cares, but nobody's coming
home until "the mission is accomplished..."
So --
as Bush likes to say, "history will show" the Revolution started on a
steamy August day...at the pig farm.
Who
knew? Who would have believed just a week ago that, after all our years of
hard work, the crude and pitiless Bush would run out there, ram his middle
finger in the face of a heartbroken mother, and jump-start the Revolution?
By the
time Cindy Sheehan leaves her station at the pig farm, Bush will know that
he was wrong. He will know, because "Mother" is not just half a word, as
Bush and his Texas buddies, his Skull and Bones cohorts, his PNAC perps
were raised to believe. "Mother" is Nature. "Mother" is Earth. "Mother" is
an invincible, protective force that, if awakened and sufficiently
outraged, will sweep the entire murderous bunch from their seats of evil
power. Ultimately, "Mother" will bring our troops home.
The
mainstream media will find, much to their chagrin, that the Revolution is
NOW, and will continue apace without them. The Iconoclast is offering
hourly updates on the Sheehan vigil. Friends of Peace and Justice of Waco
is mobilizing support for Sheehan’s vigil, which could last until the end
of August.
More
information can be obtained at the
Crawford Peace House website or by calling (254)486-0099. Air
America Radio hosts, especially Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy, are all
over this story, giving minute-by-minute updates, many of them coming from
Sheehan herself, who calls the station regularly. Google "Cindy Sheehan,"
and you will discover the entire Internet is wide awake and on the march,
and will join the Revolution -- at the pig farm.
Also
check out:
Gold
Star Families for Peace:
www.gsfp.org
Military Families Speak Out:
www.mfso.org
Veterans for Peace;
www.veteransforpeace.org
CodePink:
www.codepink4peace.org
Vietnam Veterans Against War:
www.vvaw.org
Iraq
Veterans Against the War:
www.ivaw.net
Meet
With Cindy:
www.meetwithcindy.org/
Sheila
Samples
is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information
Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
Contact her at:
rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2005 Sheila Samples
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*
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*
How Building a Saudi City Made a Lefty Out of Dick Underhill, VFP by
Greg Moses
Other Articles by Sheila Samples
*
Are the
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* The
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* A Matter
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* Who Will
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* John
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* We Are
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* They Were
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* A
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* Super
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* Three
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* Butt
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* A Kick in
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* Oh Lord,
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* The Last
Man to Concede
* Bring Them
Home . . . Sooner Rather Than Later
* Best Way
to "Support the Troops" is to Bring Them Home
* “Mr.
President” de la Mancha
*
Stinky and the Vulcans
* Haunted
Empire
* The Last
Battle
*
Pre-emptive Pie-Hole Policy Not an Option
* Freedom to
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* When
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* Like Dogs
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* Blame the
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* Open
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* I Know
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*
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* Truth and
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* Playing
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* My
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* If
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* It Takes a
Nitwit
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