CINDY SHEEHAN: "I HAVE TO GO NOW. THANK YOU."
Byron York
The Corner
The appearance by Cindy Sheehan on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" that Jonah mentioned yesterday was quite extraordinary (you can listen to it here npr.org ).
It was extraordinary, first, for the way Sheehan dealt with host Neal Conan. And it was extraordinary, second, for the revealing interviews Conan later conducted with three other parents of U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq.
First, Sheehan. Conan irritated her early in the interview by asking why her son Casey had joined the army. "He got lied to by his recruiter," Sheehan said.
"Did you try to talk him out of it?" Conan asked.
"We didn't have a chance," Sheehan said, explaining that Casey signed up before telling his parents.
"He made a choice of his own," Conan said.
"Right," Sheehan said. Then, after a long pause, she said, "What does that have to do with him being sent to a war that's illegal and immoral...?"
"No, but he wasn't drafted," Conan said. "He made a choice of free will."
Things went downhill from there, when Conan asked what President Bush had said to Sheehan during their meeting in June 2004. "I've talked about this a lot, do you have any new questions?" Sheehan said. When Conan persisted, Sheehan said, "I have two minutes."
Clearly surprised, Conan asked about a few other topics. Then he said, "A lot of statements have been attributed to you as Camp Casey has grown, as this movement has grown -- "
"I have to go now. Thank you," Sheehan said, and hung up.
"Cindy Sheehan, leaving us, there in Crawford, Texas," Conan told listeners. "We apologize for that. We had arranged with people there to speak with Cindy Sheehan for the remainder of this segment, take some calls as well. Evidently plans changed at the last minute."
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