I don't really agree very much with Cindy Sheehan, Oral. I do believe she is a private citizen and is entitled to her views. I think it is regrettable that she is leading the anti-war movement at this point, because the president's supporters have made her the issue, instead of our failed efforts in Iraq. I notice all anyone on the right can talk about is Cindy Sheehan, so the White House effort has been quite successful at making her the issue, not the war.
I have already said here that I didn't believe Sheehan's second account of the visit she had with Bush, and that this was an additional reason to widen the number of spokespeople for the anti-war effort. I don't think she has a lot of credibility. But again, the issue is a grossly incompetent president going to war after lying to the American public and jeopardizing all of us, not Cindy Sheehan.
It somehow remains a secret to most Americans that our policy in the Middle East and the growth of Arabic terror and radical Islam all started with our support of Israel. However, the more outrageous statements attributed to her I don't believe she said, and that has been covered at Feelies in several posts recently.
Cindy Sheehan has lost her marriage over the different way she and her husband are grieving. I understand their remaining children really are missing their mother. All of that is part of the tragedy of losing their son. The more remote family members--aunts, uncles, cousins--are people who Cindy Sheehan claims didn't know her son very well and do not represent his views. It is clear that Cindy's grief has taken her in a direction it would not take everyone, but how can we judge someone's path so harshly when we haven't been there?
Is David Duke anti-Semitic? I don't really follow him. Again, since this is not about Cindy Sheehan for me, but our Iraq misadventuring, he is kind of irrelevant. Pat Robertson just stated that we should assassinate the president of Venezuela. He is an avid supporter of our president, however. Does having a supporter make you the same as their most crazed statements? There isn't much you can do about your supporters sometimes; they are not you.
In my own personal belief system life ends at death, and no one is rolling over in their grave for any reason at all because they aren't really there anymore. I find nothing wrong with being a vocal anti-war protester whether you lost a child or not, and whether that child would have felt the same way. One of the ways the military brainwashes people is by making supporting the group, their buddies, their mission the most important thing in their lives. I myself think this makes for quite a few bad decisions about reinlisting, etc.
I think the Democratic party is in a total shambles. I hope John McCain runs for president, because I would probably vote for him, unless John Edwards is the Democratic candidate. At the same time, I think we need to separate the anti-war effort re Iraq from politics, and do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. A majority of the American public no longer supports the war, and I don't think it is going to get any more popular. Bush does not see reality very well; he is extremely isolated from it. He is going to be marginalized to giving speeches for pro-military groups in red states. I don't think that is a good way to run a country, and I think the country will continue to move away from his failed presidency. |
