It’s been a while since I paid any attention to the “catalyst for the anti-war movement,” Cindy Sheehan. This is not because she has dropped below the radar of the mainstream press because she hasn’t. Her recent foray into international politics has guaranteed that her 15 minutes of fame usually vouchsafed by the media will keep being renewed like some horrible sitcom that refuses to die. Her trip to the socialist paradise of Venezuela last month where she played kissy-face with one of the most nauseating leaders on the planet is a case in point.
Hugo Chavez is not only an anti-American Latin lefty thug but also one of the weirdest dictators you’re likely to run into. His weekly four-hour rants are broadcast nationwide. The name of the show “Hello President,” features Chavez reading newspapers and commenting on the issues of the day. One recent show lasted 6 hours. Considering that Americans won’t even watch George Clooney for three hours, it tells you something about this guy’s ego that he actually believes the long-suffering people of Venezuela tune in to watch this comedian do his schtick. At least Cuba’s Fidel Castro has a captive audience during his weekly 3 hour ravings, as the Commandante appears on all broadcast and radio channels at the same time. Chavez has to compete with soccer, Latin music shows, and other more uplifting programs which probably mean that his ratings are as close to zero as can be imagined.
But that didn’t stop our peace mom from appearing with him at something called the “World Social Forum,” an annual gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists. During a live “Hello President” insomnia-curing show, Chavez showed why the CIA would be doing the world a huge favor if they deposed this fellow:
Chavez said Sheehan had invited him to join her April protest at Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch. Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, held a vigil outside Bush’s ranch during the president’s vacation in August, attracting some 12,000 peace activists and reinvigorating the national anti-war movement.“Maybe I’ll put up my tent also,†Chavez said, to applause from an audience invited to his weekly broadcast on the final day of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists.
Chavez said his government would help protest the war in Iraq by supporting a drive to gather petitions and delivering them to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Chavez, who before the war in Iraq had friendly relations with Saddam Hussein, has been a frequent and strident critic of the war.
First, it is important to note that this story was written by the Associated Press, consistently one of Sheehan’s biggest boosters. The use of the figure “12,000” protesters at Crawford is laughably over-inflated. Sheehan, by order of the local Sheriff, had about 200 people camping out with her at any one time during her 5 week stay in Crawford, Texas. That, plus the fact that no “event” conjured up by her handlers and PR gurus ever drew more than 2-3,000 people puts the lie to that AP figure. There were never anywhere near 12,000 anti-war activists at any one time within 50 miles of the President’s ranch.
It is just one more example of the media’s desire to portray Sheehan as the head of a massive grass roots movement to end the war. There is plenty of dissatisfaction by both the right and the left with the way that things are going in Iraq. But to date, that unease has not translated into the kind of massive protests seen during the Viet Nam War. But that hasn’t seemed to stop the media – and the AP especially from turning Sheehan into some kind of peace goddess. Check out this AP piece that appeared today and tell me if you don’t get the sense that there’s a halo surrounding Sheehan:
Still liable to tear up when talking about her son, she says her issue is right and wrong, not left and right. She points out that she has criticized Democrats, including Feinstein, for their war stance and has no problem supporting Republicans who oppose the war.She is co-founder of the nonprofit Gold Star Families for Peace, wrote a book “Not One More Mother’s Child,” and is working on another.
She gets help from groups including CODEPINK, a national woman’s peace group, and Veterans for Peace. Her own operation is small – herself, her sister and someone who helps out from time to time answering e-mail.
First of all, CODEPINK is much, much more than just a “woman’s peace group.” It is one of the more radical anti-globalization, anti-war, and pro-Palestinian groups out there. The fact that there are precious few mentions of the stomach-turning anti-semitism spouted by Sheehan should tell you that for far too long, the press has protected Sheehan by leaving out her incredibly viral anti-Semitic and anti-American rants and, instead concentrated on this poor little suburban mom who only wanted to meet with the President to ask him why her son had to die. That the press would have the effrontery to actually think that anyone older than 5 years of age believed that shows how desperate some in the press are to have the fantasies they write about with regard to an anti-war movement come true.
In the end, there simply is no massive wave of unrest over the war. There isn’t even the beginnings of it. What we have are the very same people who opposed the Iraq war in the first place, making the same arguments and tossing about the same blood libels about the Jews, the “neocons,” big oil, and Bush “cronies.” It’s enough to make one sick except we’ve grown so used to it by now that it has simply faded into the background cacophony of media bile spilled over the President and the war.
Sheehan will continue to be trotted out now and again in the hopes that her presence will add “legitimacy” to the anti-war crowd. But until the American people themselves – who are at best ambivalent at the moment about our continuing presence in Iraq – become convinced that the troops should come home and back that up with the kind of outrage we saw 40 years ago, Sheehan will remain a curiosity, an afterthought created by the media and manipulated by radicals who would like nothing better than to see the United States humiliated and their own radical socialist agenda become the law of the land.
1:25 pm
Sheehan is the one with the name, and the one with the following, but she isn’t the only mother who hates the ideals of her son. (That is the only way to describe it, anyone who thinks her son would tolerate this in anyway other than having her committed must be. . . .well cindy sheehan) You’re from Chi right rick? well remember in 2003 the mother who lost a son, she was from the SW burbs, and she, AT HER SONS FUNERAL
vamped for the camera’s, feigning a faint (spelling) where a Marine in full dress escorting her had to grab her arm and put his arm around her shoulders, she then, at THAT moment, embraced by a Marine looking distraught screamed at the camera’s “George Bush killed. . . . My SON!” it was so shrill, and obviously intentional.
I have no problem with real issues with the war, I DO have a problem with those who pre-suppose an arrogant moral authority to make a political statement. Murtha, sheehan, crazy chick from the chicago burbs are insulting. They openly say, “don’t question my sacrifice” but then they turn around and they defame the very “sacrifice” they supposedly offered up. They prove themselves liars and manipulators, and very very low people by feeding off of their own young in the hopes of their 15 minutes.
5:39 pm
u sure about this: “her incredibly viral anti-Semitic and anti-American rants”?
please refer me to evidence.
5:52 pm
From http://www.peacewithrealism.org
Cindy Sheehan on Israel
This kind of language may be appropriate for those whose views are as extreme as Sheehan’s, but Sheehan wants to promote her cause to more general audiences by eliciting their sympathy. Thus the abrasive, anti-Israel loudmouth is not quite the image she wishes to present to mainstream America. So when an e-mail she sent to ABC News surfaced and put her in a bad light, she tried to kill the story. Here is the text of that e-mail:
Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full-well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by George [W.] Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy… not for the real reason, because the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy. That hasn’t changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq… in fact it has gotten worse.(5)
The clash between the language of this message and Sheehan’s public persona damaged her image. So on August 15 she appeared on CNN’s “360 with Anderson Cooper” to deny she had written it: “I saw somebody wrote that and it wasn’t my words. Those aren’t even words that I would say.” Nevertheless, ABC News has confirmed that they did receive the letter and that it was signed by Sheehan. Sheehan now claims her message was “doctored” by a “former friend who is anti-Israel and wants to use the spotlight on me to push his anti-Semitism.” The supposed friend, James Morris, denies it.(6)
It is always difficult to prove a negative, in this case that a message signed by Sheehan and sent to ABC was not in fact altered. But does it really matter? Are the words in that message really not “even words that I would say”? Hardly. The message itself is irrelevant, since Sheehan has expressed the same sentiments on other occasions.
From the San Francisco State University speech:
What they’re saying, too, is like, it’s okay for Israel to have nuclear weapons. But Iran or Syria better not get nuclear weapons. It’s okay for the United States to have nuclear weapons. It’s okay for the countries that we say it’s okay for. We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now.(7)
From the speech at the Veterans for Peace National Convention:
You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism.(8)
Finally, with my own eyes and ears I saw Cindy Sheehan on CNN this month (August 2005) saying that the reason so many Muslims hate America and want to attack us is because “our foreign policy favors Israel.”
So whether or not Sheehan’s memo to ABC was doctored, her claim that “those aren’t even words that I would say” is simply not credible.
In fact, the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel cause appears to be one of Sheehan’s favorites. It is reported that at the San Franicisco State University rally Sheehan was wearing a sweatshirt advertising the website for United for Peace and Justice.(9) UPJ is a pro-Palestinian organization that states on its web site:
On the issue of Palestine the community calls for: The immediate elimination of all discriminatory practices and institutions that are based on race, culture and/or ethnicity on which Israel law is founded. The return of all Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties. End Israeli Occupation. The Right of the Palestinian people for self determination.(10)
The statement accuses Israel of racism (ignoring the fact that Israel is far more tolerant of different religions and ethnic groups than are Muslim countries), and advocates a “right of return” of Palestinian refugees into Israel that would destroy Israeli society.
UPJ is not the only anti-Israel organization with which Sheehan is involved. The Crawford Peace House is one of her most prominent supporters. At present its home page proudly states: “We are mobilizing support for Cindy Sheehan’s action in Crawford Texas.” Recently the New York Sun reported the following:
It turns out that the Crawford Peace House Web site includes a photo depicting the entire state of Israel as “Palestine,” and it carries a link to a report that when Prime Minister Sharon visited Crawford, the “peace house” greeted him with an “800-foot-long banner containing all of the United Nations resolutions that Israel is in violation of.” The Crawford Peace House site also features a photo of Eugene Bird, who has suggested that Israeli intelligence was responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.(11)
When criticism of Israel becomes this extreme it verges into anti-Semitism. While Israel’s policies are no more above criticism than those of any other nation, making Israel the prime reason for terrorism, as Sheehan has done, defies both history and rationality. American policy toward Israel is not the only, nor even the principal reason for the Islamic terrorism that has erupted all over the world. Exaggerating the role of Israel in the rise of worldwide terrorism recalls the myth of the powerful Jew destroying the world, a classic anti-Semitic theme. Sheehan herself appears to realize her anti-Israel views cross this line, since she has tried to disavow such views published under her name as the work of a “former friend” trying to “push his anti-Semitism.” This is certainly duplicitous, since even if she did not write the particular message in question, she has expressed similar views elsewhere.
Cindy Sheehan on Terrorism
Cindy’s problem is bigger than Israel. Her view of terrorism is so bizarre that she actually seems to sympathize more with anti-American terrorists than with America. She compares America to Nazi Germany, calling President Bush “Führer” and accusing the United States of committing “blatant genocide.”(12) Here is a sampling of her views on terrorism:
From “A Lie of Historic Proportions”:
Casey [Sheehan’s son] was killed in the Global War Of Terrorism waged on the world and its own citizens by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world: George and his destructive Neo-con cabal.(13)
From her speech to the rally at San Francisco State:
First, I want to give my little story about Lynne [Stewart]. Of course, you all have read To Kill a Mockingbird. Lynne is my human Atticus Finch. He did what he knew was right, but wasn’t popular. And that’s what Lynne is doing….
The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush….
I’m going all over the country telling moms: “This country is not worth dying for.”(14)
The rally at SFSU was in support of Lynne Stewart. Stewart is the New York lawyer who was convicted of assisting the terrorist operations of her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was implicated in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Atticus Finch is the hero lawyer in Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, who defends a young black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman. If Lynne Stewart is Atticus Finch, then Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman is that innocent black man persecuted by a white racist society. Meanwhile, George W. Bush is the “biggest terrorist in the world” (including, presumably, even Osama). These comparisons speak volumes about Sheehan’s values and priorities.
Cindy Sheehan did suffer a real tragedy in the loss of her son, for which she deserves our respect. But she is using that tragedy to repackage herself, to camouflage her radical leftist background, which she prefers to reveal only to selected audiences. By so doing she hopes to achieve a broad appeal that will galvanize the entire country into a revolt against not only Bush and his Iraq war policy but the whole enterprise of the war against terrorism.
6:03 pm
Bubbaj:
Thanks for saving me the leg work. It’s amazing what this woman has said in public forums across the country about Jews, Israel, and America – not Bush, not “the government” but the country of America.
I am not a believer in conspiracies so I pooh pooh the idea that there is any coordinated cover up by the press. But at the same time, here is absolute proof that there exists a groupthink in the press about this woman that she must indeed be protected, that her off the wall politics be hidden from the majority of Americans, and that her friends at The Crawford Peace House, Moveon, Codepink, and Truthout.com are manipulating her celebrity for their own reasons.
6:30 pm
Rick,
I think the press intentionally makes her out to be your average American mother so her protest of the war and the president looks more legitimate because the majority of the press is also against the war and the president. In that sense, I do think there is a “cover-up.”
I wrote a letter to the editor of my local paper about sheehan. I included her anti-semetic, anti-American quotes and cited my sources. The editor printed my letter but not before he neutered it. He had earlier written an editorial supporting sheehan. It was obvious what his intent was.
7:46 pm
You call what happened 40 years ago courage? I call it a shame on the American people that resulted in the unnecessary death of 3 to 5 million people in Southeast Asia. The war was over, South Vietnam was being turned over to it’s own government and the cowards in the U.S. announced that they were abandoning them, then the slaughter began. All of the so called Americans that participated in that shame have blood on their hands that will not wash off. It was no different than the sham by the Slick Willie nuts that abandoned out troops and made the setting for Black Hawk Down, Or the Bay of Pigs by the great hero (a joke bought and paid for by the Kennedy crime money), only different people were killed. This country has lost three and are working on losing the fourth was courtesy of the dim-wits of the country, assisted by the American communist party. You write like an educated person, which liberal arts (worthless) college did you attend. A piece of paper does not make an educated person.
7:57 pm
Scapiron:
Um…if you reread the post you’ll see you mistook the word “outrage” for “courage.”
Which high school did you drop out of?
6:16 am
[...] Cross Posted at Right Wing Nuthouse. [...]
1:00 pm
The Associated Press is a cooperative owned by the outlets it serves, and these outlets are under enormous cost pressures, which necessarily impact the AP. The oulets simply cannot afford to pay anyone anymore who is more than about 20 years old (mentally, if not physically). People of this ilk are very susceptible to group-think, me-too-ism, and wishful thinking that what was true 40 years ago is true today. What military academies warn cadets about “fighting the last war.”
5:42 pm
Remember St. SeaHag the Dolefuls remark about troops “occupying” New Orleans?
Yeah….’nuff said ‘d nova’. Now hit the showers, kid, you gave it a good shot and got shut out. Better luck next time.
7:36 pm
From Codepink Website:
“CODEPINK is a women-led and women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement dedicated to stopping the war in Iraq, preventing future wars and redirecting our country’s resources into life-affirming activities: education, health care, veteran’s benefits and social services.”
If Codepink is not anti-Globalization, what the hell were they doing at the G-7 Meeting last summer in Scotland? Playing golf?
8:32 pm
I’m not in Cindy Sheehan’s corner, but I think it is a unfair to call her an anti-Semite. Cut her some slack, please.
8:09 am
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4:35 pm
Cindy speaks for me!
7:56 pm
Do a Google search on Cindy Sheehan. Then do one on Paul Ray Smith. For those who don’t recognize Smith’s name, he’s the lone Congressional Medal of Honor Winner from the Iraq War. When I did the searches, I got 15 million hits on Cindy, 50 thousand on Paul. Does this tell anybody anything?