There is a broad consensus about Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. He enlisted in the Army in 2000 as a twenty-year old. When he completed his initial enlistment and during the run up to the Iraq War, he felt a duty to re-enlist in August 2003. He anticipated that he might be sent to Iraq and his expectations were realized when he was deployed in 2004. The young Humvee mechanic was attached to the First US Cavalry.
Casey Sheehan died a hero when his convoy was attacked in Sadr City. Sheehan did not have to be part of the convoy. His sergeant told him that because he was a mechanic, Casey did not have to go into combat. Casey chose to share the fate of his comrades.
Of course, Casey Sheehan’s family, like the families of all fallen soldiers was devastated. President George W. Bush has met with the families of hundreds of fallen soldiers. The Sheehan family was among a group of families that met with Bush months ago. At the time, Casey’s mother Cindy Sheehan apparently appreciated the consolation the president provided.
According to The Reporter, a Vacaville California paper in June 2004, the meeting of the families of parents of fallen service people with the president allowed the families to celebrate the lives of their loved ones and remember the good times they shared. According to Cindy Sheehan, “[t]hat was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together.” The WorldNet Daily has even uncovered photographs of President Bush giving Cindy Sheehan a friendly kiss during their meeting.
Over several months, Cindy has been transformed from a grieving mother, consoled by a president to a bitter person hating not only the president but her country as well. She has begun identifying with the vilest of the Left. Sheehen now favorably compares Lynne Stewart, a radical Left-wing lawyer convicted of providing material support to terrorists groups, with Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird that defended an innocent black man accused of rape. The same radical Islamofacism that Stewart was convicted of helping, killed Sheehan’s son. Frontpage Magazine quotes Sheehan as claiming “The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush,” and that our government is a “morally repugnant system.” Cindy Sheehan is now staging an angry protest in front of George Bush’s ranch.
One wishes not to be too hard on Cindy Sheehan since she has suffered a great loss. Unfortunately, her anger is not redemptive, but self-consuming. Has she been exploited by the Left, or is does she really believe the anti-American rhetoric she is using? It is not possible to tell from a distance.
Clearly, the entire situation has divided her family. Cindy’s husband of 28 years, Patrick, has filed for divorce. Casey Sheehan’s paternal grandparents are upset with Cindy writing that “We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son’s good name and reputation The Sheehan family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. The rest of the Sheehan family supports the troops, our country and our president, silently, with prayer and respect.”
According to a recent Rasmussen poll, a plurality of people with family members in Iraq, people who might empathize with Cindy Sheehan, view her unfavorably. The family of Marine Corporal Matthew Matula was so angry that Cindy Sheehan used the fallen Marine’s name on a protest cross that they traveled to Texas to insist that his name be removed. The more Sheehen speaks, the faster popular sympathy dissipates.
Whatever Cindy Sheehan’s real thinking, it is clear that her personal tragedy is being politically exploited by the Left. This is the same “politics is everything” approach to emotional exploitation on the Left that turned the solemn memorial service for Liberal Senator Paul Wellstone, who tragically died in an airplane crash, into a boisterous political rally.
The real political danger of Cindy Sheehan is not to President Bush, but to the Left and Democrats. The exploitation of Sheehan will be viewed by many as unseemly. It will hurt Democrats politically much in the same way that the callous reaction to the Paul Wellstone funeral helped defeat Democrat Walter Mondale who filled Wellstone’s vacant candidacy for senator from Minnesota.
Moreover, if the Left and Democrats embrace the heated and angry anti-American rhetoric of Sheehan that Bush is a terrorist and that we are as a country, “morally repugnant,” they will suffer politically. Americans can be appealed to by the loyal opposition — people who love America and its institutions, but who want it to move in a different direction. Cindy Sheehan’s voice does not sound like the loyal opposition. For their own political survival and to reduce the viciousness of political rhetoric, Democrats should not allow her voice to become their voice.
The Power to Decide
Sunday, August 28th, 2005There are many important and controversial issues complex legal, medical, ethical, moral, and religious surrounding abortion. There are strong, well-founded positions on both sides that arise from considerable deliberation and debate. However, with respect to a girl who has not yet reached the age of majority, it is the opinion of many Liberals and certainly of the Left-wing of the Democratic Party, that she is capable of reaching a considered decision with respect to obtaining an abortion without the involvement of her parents. The Left believes that a girl with an inconvenient pregnancy can reach a measured decision about an abortion without her parents consent and without even their notification.
Now there are extremely abusive situations, for example, where a pregnancy may be the result of incest, when notification might lead to further abuse. There might be emergency medical situations where parental notification would be impractical. Laws attempting to institute a protocol for parental notification, invariably include exceptions for such extreme situations.
No, the Liberal embrace of abortion is so fierce they are willing to allow young girls to make difficult decisions with out the aid and comfort of their families. After all, they might reach a decision the Left would not prefer. Do you think the Left would be concerned about parental notification, if parents inevitably encouraged reluctant underage girls to have abortions? In such cases, they would make notification mandatory.
Now compare this situation with the rhetoric of the Left concerning the Iraq War. Actor Richard Dreyfuss recently commented that, No one should come for my son and tell my son to go and kill someone or put himself in harm’s way unless I understand and agree to the need.”
Part of the incongruity of this statement is associated with the fact that many members of the feeble and aging Left seemed trapped in a time warp. Within the confines of this temporal hiccup, people re-live 1968 over and over again in an endless loop, when young men were drafted for war. We are now protected by an army of highly-motivated volunteers and the Left just has not been able to understand it. They reflexively act as if there were a draft.
How can the Left on one hand argue that underage girls can make momentous decisions with regard to abortion without their parents’ consent or even knowledge, while at the same time asserting that young men and woman over 18 do not make reasoned decisions with regard to military service? Cindy Sheehan’s son, who has attracted so much controversy re-enlisted at age 24 in October 2003, when weapons of mass destruction had not been found and the reconstruction of Iraq was clearly going to be bloody. Cindy Sheehan herself did not trust her son’s judgment. According to Cindy Sheehan, Casey “felt that he had to go to protect his buddies, to be there for his buddies, to be support, and they are brainwashed into thinking that even if they don’t agree with the mission, they’re brainwashed into just blindly following it.”
Who understands the workings of Cindy Sheehan’s mind? I prefer to believe she is confused by grief. I also prefer to believe that her son, the 24-year old Casey Sheehan, was capable of making heroic decision to protect his buddies” out of uncommon love, not brainwashing. Does it do Casey Sheehan more personal honor to suggest that he acted out of valor or because he was brainwashed?
Perhaps the Left can learn to trust the independence and judgment of young men and women older than 18 and sometimes many years older as much as they trust the judgment of frightened 14-year old girls.
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