Cindy Sheehan Wants the President to Explain Her Son's Death in Iraq

Army Specialist Casey Sheehan of Vacaville, California, was killed in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on April 4, 2004. His mother, Cindy, is spending her summer waiting outside Mr. Bush’s Texas Ranch, where this month the president is going to spend the longest presidential vacation in 37 years. Mrs. Sheehan figures since he has all that free time, he could find a few minutes to look her in the eye and explain why her son died in a place even hotter than Texas in August. While her effort is noble and was inevitable, one expects she has a long, hot wait ahead of her.

Naturally, her emotional state is that of a mother who has lost a child. Specialist Sheehan may have been a tough US trooper in a Humvee, but he was her Casey and always would be. Her choice of words proves this. “I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son? He said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is.” And “I want him to honor my son by bringing the troops home immediately. I don't want him to use my son's name or my name to justify any more killing.”

It was only a matter of time before the joy of the Thunder Run to Baghdad, the Cakewalk in Mesopotamia gave way to the funerals (which the American press still hasn’t shown, despite having had more than 1,800 opportunities). There will be more empty seats at the table this Thanksgiving, and the families don’t know why. This was not a problem in World War II. Thousands upon thousands never came back, but there was never any doubt about why.

The war in Iraq has had three separate and distinct reasons, or if one prefers, pretexts. The first was to protect America and its allies from attacks coming from Iraq either directly or via Al Qaeda using weapons of mass destruction. That proved to be a fabrication on the part of someone and gullibility on the part of everyone else involved. Then, there was spreading democracy in the Middle East and freeing Iraqis from dictatorship. It isn’t much of a democracy when 2% of Anbar province turns up to vote on polling day, and Shi’ite militants in Basra have attacked students at a picnic because males and females were mingling, so it seems the name of the dictator is gone but the practices remain. And of course, pretext number three says the fight against Fascislam in Iraq means the fight won’t be on the territory of the US and its allies (of course, the people of Madrid and London may disagree that it has worked).

The arrival of someone like Mrs. Sheehan on the scene was inevitable. The War in Iraq has never had a single, cogent explanation. At best, Mr. Bush has been a miserable communicator of that explanation, and that is the most charitable light one can shine on it. There are people in Congress warning that the actions of people like Mrs. Sheehan are bad for moral and call into question America’s commitment to Iraq at a time when that commitment is being sorely tested. A democracy can’t fight a war without the support of the people, and the people won’t support a war they don’t understand. And after two and a half years, the country is still waiting for an explanation. “Stay the course” the president says. “Told you so” comes the reply.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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