Varifrank: The Call

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The Call

Cindy Sheehan, mother of deceased Army Specialist Casey Sheehan said this at President Bushs Crawford Texas Ranch:

“We need to get our troops out of Iraq. The only reason Bush wants to stay there is because his buddies are getting rich and feasting off the blood of our children”

and

I have to wonder for the rest of my life if the gun which took Casey’s life was sold to Saddam by the US or by Britain.

I could do a whole essay just on those two little nuggets, but I wont.

I know. "This woman lost her son, and none of us can imagine what that’s like".

Well Im sorry but I can. I watched my parents in anguish over the loss of their daughter, who at age 17, took the family car to work one day and never came home. My parents were nearly comatose with guilt. My father wandered for years in a cloud of "if onlys"; "if only he had changed the tires, the car might not have flipped..." and so on. My mother felt that she shouldn’t have let my sister get the job that she was driving to, a drive that one day lead to her death. The list goes on and on of "what might have been" in the minds of a parent who’s lost a child.

For 6 months after the day my sister died, my mother and father would get up in the morning and try to go about their lives, only to stop at some point and go into state that was as near to a trance as anything I’ve ever seen. Usually it was at the breakfast table, where they would start to begin a conversation, only to pause to form the question, and find themselves still paused two hours later in mid sentence. After the first few times it happened I took it upon myself to remind them that they had work to do, that there were things that they still had to attend to. The first few times I interrupted their "trance", they were angry at the interruption, but after awhile, they understood and while the little interrupts came more often, they were less intense.

There is no grief like the grief of a parent losing a child. At the age of 22, I watched grief, guilt and the horror of the loss of my sister damn near kill both my parents. My life went on hold for the next 8 months, as I had to help them remeber to eat, wash their clothes and go about the normal operations of life, they were that far gone with grief. Every day was another day; you just tried to make it to the end of the day and shoot for the next. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life and I pray to God it never happens to me with my kids.

The truth is, you don’t really get over someone when they die, you just get through it, and everyone has their own way of getting through it.

My mom got through it by eventually starting a crusade against the road that my sister drove on, insisting that it had contributed to the death of her daughter. She sued the state and county promising the use the proceeds to fund a swimming pool at our high school, a sport my sister had loved. It was ludicrous, and it was a bit embarrassing, but it didn’t matter. It was good to see mom with fire in her eyes instead of the dark haunted soul she had become for a few bleak months.

Nothing came of it, but it gave her something to do for the next year. It gave her a way to feel that my sister’s life had not been in vain, that others would benefit from her death. By the time the suit had been dismissed, my mother had learned how to live in the world again and today, she hardly remembers the intensity of her temporary mania.

So when I look at Cindy Sheehan, I do so out of total sympathy. I’ve seen my own mother racked with guilt at decisions that she thinks she made in error, but were innocent and had nothing to do with what caused my sisters death. I’ve seen my mother beg God to go back and make the world as it was, a world that could never be again. I’ve seen my mother cry from sunrise to sunset and do it all over again the next day. I’ve seen my mother deal with the horror of not being able to do a damn thing to bring back the life she gave birth to.

There is no loss like the loss of a child, and no matter how old we are, we are always someone’s child.

But Cindy Sheehan, for all the sympathy I have for her, is also wrong and Cindy Sheehan is also a liar. What’s worse, Cindy Sheehan is taking action to ensure that more American soldiers are killed by foolishly aligning herself with the insurgents, which will empower them and ensure that more innocent Iraqis are killed and more American troops are killed. She is feeding the very forces of hate and terror that killed her son.

Cindy Sheehan has also said her son did not want to go to Iraq. She is wrong, and she knows it. Here is a bit of information you wont here on CNN about Casey Sheehan ( from Lee Kaplan – FrontPage Magazine):

“While one might dismiss some of Sheehan’s hyperbole due to grief over her son’s death, a little research about Casey Sheehan revealed that contrary to being tricked by military recruiters, Casey Sheehan had re-enlisted in the U.S. Army voluntarily when he was 24-years-old, after serving his first hitch successfully. Casey Sheehan was in fact a hero who received a Bronze Star. He was attached as a mechanic to the artillery division of the 1st U.S. Cavalry in Iraq. When a convoy of soldiers from Casey’s unit was attacked in Sadr City by insurgents, Casey volunteered to join a rapid rescue force to get them out. His commanding sergeant told him he did not have to go into combat, because he was a mechanic and not an infantryman. Casey was quoted telling his officer, “I go where my chief goes.” He was tragically killed during the rescue attempt. The source for this story?

Cindy Sheehan herself.

I also visited an army recruiting office on my way home and asked about Casey being promised a job as a chaplain’s assistant only to be thrust into harm’s way. The recruiter explained to me that on re-enlistment, the Army’s B.E.A.R. program (Bonus Extension and Retaining) guarantees everything in writing. If Casey was a mechanic during his first hitch, that was the only thing he would have been guaranteed per his re-enlistment contract. Further research showed that a chaplain’s assistant is a combat infantry position, whereas Casey was deployed in a non-combat job as a mechanic. Casey Sheehan sought combat duty for his country and should be honored for it, not used as a symbol of how evil the United States is.”

Casey Sheehan wasn’t a kid. He was a man. Casey Sheehan wasn’t in high school; he was 24 years old, on his second voluntary hitch with the service. He wasn’t tricked, he wasn’t bamboozled, he wasn’t a victim of predatory recruiters. He chose to be there.

He was a Volunteer.
He was a Patriot.
He was a Hero.
He was a Man.

and yeah, he was also someones baby boy.

Cindy Sheehan has said in retort that none of us can know what it is like to lose a child. As I’ve illustrated, I agree. But Cindy Sheehan isn’t the first woman to lose a child in this war. Here’s another woman who has also lost her child in Iraq.

(Kurdish woman and child,killed in mustard gas attack in Haditha Iraq - 1994)

This woman also lost her child to warfare. She also died protecting her child. She knows what it was like to lose a child. As the cloud of mustard gas covered her and her baby and she began to accept her fate, I wonder if she called out for help, only to be unheard by the likes of Cindy Sheehan and her supporters.

This woman lost her life because no one like Casey was willing or able to defend her. The people that are fronting Cindy Sheehan never protested the loss of this child or the mother. Casey Sheehan went to Iraq to stop this from happening. Casey Sheehan died trying to make the world a better place. Casey Sheehan and his fellow soldiers have directly stopped the genocide that Saddam was perpetrating, a genocide that went unnoticed by Cindy Sheehan or her supporters, a genocide that is now over, because men like Casey Sheehan put their lives on the line to stop to it.

Casey Sheehan put his life on the line to make the world a better place. Casey Sheehan indirectly contributed to the lives of many Iraqis who once condemned to death at the hands of Saddam. In doing so, Casey has made the world a safer place for all of us. The defense of freedom, the defense of democracy is nothing to be ashamed of. We are not in Iraq for oil, and to say so cheapens the life of men like Casey and the anonymous Kurdish woman in the picture.

I do not know where we get men like Casey Sheehan, but it is the men of his type that allow all of us to go on living in the soft comfort of our daily lives. It is the likes of Casey that allow his mother the right of protest. While Cindy Sheehan makes street theater in front of the Presidents home, She does so in the comfort of rights afforded all to few Islamic women. The day when a Saudi woman can enjoy the same right of protest in Jiddah to excoriate the leader of her country will be a great day indeed, and it’s a day that Casey was indirectly fighting for and one that his mother Cindy is directly fighting against.

And that’s what Casey was fighting for Mrs. Sheehan, the rights of women everywhere to be as free as you are. Remember Mrs. Sheehan; he died for you and the rights you are now abusing - he did not die for oil.

Go ahead and grieve Mrs. Sheehan. Get mad, get angry, stomp your feet, call names, spit, cry and fall to the ground in front the Presidents house only do it all over again the next day. You wont be the first, and God help us, you won’t be the last, but go ahead, it’s your right, its a right that Casey and the other men who fight for freedom gave to you.

One day, you’ll be all out of grief and all you will have is the memory of the little boy you once held in your arms, who’s name you dragged through the mud of politics in your misguided need to get even with a man who you hardly know, who it turns out is just somebody elses little boy who ended up as the President one day.

Update: On November 13, 1942, the following 5 brothers were all killed in the sinking of the USS Juneau during the Battle of Guadalcanal:

George Thomas Sullivan, 27, Gunner's Mate Second Class
Francis "Frank" Henry Sullivan, 25, Coxswain
Joseph "Red" Eugene Sullivan, 23, Seaman Second Class
Madison "Matt" Abel Sullivan, 22, Seaman Second Class
Albert "Al" Leo Sullivan, 19, Seaman Second Class

Question: Just exactly how hard do you think their mother, Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, would slap Mrs. Sheehan for her actions? Read more about the sacrifice of another American Mother here

Posted @ August 11, 2005 06:46 PM | Sheehan Chronicles

Well said and most moving. A brilliant weaving of sympathy, understanding, sanity, balance, and insight. Best post I've read on this subject. I'm so glad someone finally referred to the Iraqi mothers whose children were gassed and Barbara Bush whose child is referred to in terms that are just plain vicious. And every family, every family, suffers losses...sometimes terrible ones-and we have to find a way to go on without ripping apart other people.

Posted by: tmt at August 12, 2005 07:28 AM

Great post, No one has said it better. The only thing that I still do not understand is why this greiving mother continues to get so much press, from both sides of the aisle.

Posted by: Michael Gersh at August 12, 2005 10:47 AM

Wonderful post. I had you bookmarked a while back on a suggestion from Smash and am sorry that I have not been as regular a reader as I should have been. You hooked me on an earlier post about some European co-workers, and the strong reaction you had to their opinions about US military aid for the tsunami.

You have a gift, my friend, for wrapping yourself around issues that are thorny, like this one, personalizing it, and making me see it in a different light. I agree with your conclusion but we couldn't have been different in how we got there (much is the pity in my case).

Keep up the good work and don't stop, whatever else you do.

Posted by: KevinGarrett at August 12, 2005 08:19 PM

I, too, have lived through the nightmare of losing a stepchild, and the same effect observed in my wife for four years or so.

However, my wife never moved to glorify herself or call attention to herself over her grief.

My heart goes ot to anyone who has lost a loved one in this conflict, or has had anyone injured.

However, this is war, and we are in it. We didn't begin it, but we will end it.

This woman is a blot to her son's memory; her own family has rebuked her and said she is out to call attention to herself and her causes.

And, worst of all, they have said it is because she plans to run for the Congress. Imagine, running on her dead son's memory.

Mrs. Sheehan, have you no shame?

Posted by: ShellySloan at August 12, 2005 08:36 PM

Great piece.
Thanks for sharing the personal info too.

I did a link on my blog, but am having a HaloScan Trackback Ping problem of some sort (I'm new to blogging).

Posted by: EMT907 at August 12, 2005 11:21 PM

This is a great post, and gave me a different perspective on Ms Sheehan's behavior.

Your post reminds me that President Bush lost his little sister to leukemia when George was only 7 or 8. I'm sure it was hard on him to see his parents go through that.

Posted by: Stace at August 13, 2005 08:08 AM

I just discovered (and blogrolled) your excellent blog. I find it hard to believe I'd somehow missed it up to now, but better late than never, I suppose.

Excellent post, making points that needed to be made, and with the extra intensity and depth that comes from painful personal experience. There is no doubt that the loss of a child is one of the toughest experiences that life can offer. That said, Ms. Sheehan's personal reaction has been taken, both by herself and the media, out of the realm of the private and personal, and into the realm of the public and political, which, as you rightly say, makes a difference.

Posted by: neo-neocon at August 14, 2005 11:43 AM

One more thing: I have a question for Varifrank-- or whoever might be familiar with this blog and could answer it for me: does Varifrank have an e-mail address? I looked for it, because I wanted to send a note to him, but although I sought, I didn't find. Am I missing something really obvious here (it's been known to happen), or does he not have a public e-mail address? Thanks.

Posted by: neo-neocon at August 14, 2005 11:44 AM

So is there some reason Bush can't take a few minutes of his vacation time to speak to this berieved mother? Is he afraid of her, or too busy relaxing, or what? This makes him look really insensitive and arrogant.

Posted by: Rider at August 14, 2005 04:56 PM

1) Presidents dont take "vacation" they simply move locations. This is 2005 - not 1890.

2) Presidents are not obligated to meet with every agreeved party during his adminsitration, He is simply "The President" not "Santa Claus", you dont get to sit in his lap and get your wish fulfilled.

Lincoln lost 300,000 men under his war, He met with only a handful of the families, he did however make an excellent speech at the site of a battle in which 50,000 Americans were killed in just a short train ride from Washington D.C. you should read it sometime, its called the "gettysburg address', I found it to be quite moving.

FDR lost 125,000 men under his watch, he also only met with a handful of familes. He was in my opinion still a good president.

President Bush has met with over 900 familes. He doesnt take the press on these outings, he doesnt make a media photo op out of it, out of respect for the familes. Oh, and one of those familes he met with was Cindy Sheehan, and that worked out really swell didnt it.

Since meeting with Cindy Sheehan, she has joined the groups who actively support the insurgents of Iraq in the propaganda efforts. In my opinion, anyone who joins or supports these groups is unworthy of the support of the President. To meet with members of the "peace groups" is akin to meeting with supporters of the Klan ( see next post).

I also submit that despite being in open vocal protest against the most powerful man in the world, she is under no threat of violence from the governent because of her positions. This is something that you cant find on the streets of Havana, Caracas, Terhan, Beijing or half a dozen other places that the left look to for guidance on how to govern this country.

Iraq will be free, not because of but in spite what the left has to say about it.

Posted by: varifrank at August 14, 2005 05:13 PM

Well that explains it all right. No wonder he doesn't want to take time from his two-hour workouts to meet with her. Thanks for pointing out the connection between peace groups and the KKK. Amazing.

Posted by: Rider at August 14, 2005 06:38 PM

Rider, are you congenitally stupid? As has been explained before, and will be explained again, he already met with her. Since that time she has been on a media tour in which she has publicly asserted thet he murdered her son, stole elections and is doing the bidding of Isreal and private business. The woman has lost her mind and has stated that meeting with POTUS would be a negative for her and her handlers. I do not often agree with any politician, but Mr. Bush has handled this with quiet dignity by ignoring a lunatic. Do not make eye contact.

Posted by: pinky at August 15, 2005 05:24 PM

Be nice. Theres no need to call names. Your argument still works if you leave the first sentence out.

Posted by: varifrank at August 15, 2005 06:46 PM

> So is there some reason Bush can't take a few minutes of his vacation time to speak to this berieved mother? Is he afraid of her, or too busy relaxing, or what? This makes him look really insensitive and arrogant.

No, the ignorance of the people as to the truth and the carefully "nuanced" reporting of the MSMs make him look insensitive and arrogant.

Point 1: He’s already met with her, said fact which has been detailed numerous times throughout the internet and newspapers (here)

Point 2: She said, in her own words, that the meeting was cordial, satisfactory, and he was polite and considerate (from the above link):
"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

Point 3: Which ones are we going to give audience to? Even with the ridiculously low death rate for this war (contrast the current toll for over two years with one single battle of WWII, even a minor one, and you start to gain perspective), the President could easily spend a huge percentage of his time meeting with them and get nothing else done…

Despite point 3, he HAS met with a large percentage of them, according to Newsweek:

Privately, Bush has met with about 900 family members of some 270 soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan

That would be 14.5% of the 1853 US casualties (source: http://icasualties.org/oif/), or about 1 in 7.

Posted by: OBloodyHell at August 15, 2005 10:58 PM

> Thanks for pointing out the connection between peace groups and the KKK. Amazing.

Clearly, you did not read the article, or you would grasp that the suggested link was between supporters of terrorists (most of the so-called "peace groups") and supporters of the Klan (people who weren't members but who stood by and approved while they did the vile things they did).

A small difference, very easy for someone on the Left to fail to understand.

Posted by: OBloodyHell at August 15, 2005 11:03 PM

Oh, I read it. It's the most ludicrous thing I've read in quite some time. A load of rubbish based on a false premiss which is then taken to its illogical conclusion. Your trouble is that you actually believe the bullshit they fax down the line from Rove to the RNC to Rush to the blogs. Breaking news: liberals and peace activists do not really support, encourage, aid, abet, promote, sympathize with, enable, promote, or admire terrorists and Iraqi insurgents. It's just a smear. A mindless, rightwing mantra. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's what the big boys tell you. But 'tain't so. Here's where this load of horse hockey has led you, now that they've also given you lowlifes the green light to slime the mother of a dead soldier who had the temerity to disagree with the emperor: since Cindy is a peace activist, and peace activists are pro-terrorist insurgent-lovers, ergo Cindy Sheehan is a pro-terrorist insurgent-lover. So that means she loves and admires and supports the people that blew up her son Casey. What an evil fiend she is. LMFAO.

BTW, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King called Cindy to offer their support and encouragement, so I guess they aren't exactly buying the KKK angle either. Duh.

You guys are some piece of work. I'll go ahead and take the hit for being a sexist. You know what, you right wingers fight like girls. Yep. Bite, pull hair, scratch, kick, and claw. You go for the eyes, the throat, the balls. Anybody that disagrees with you, you go after them personally and start smearing them and tearing them down. This is the Rove School of Rightwing Kung Fu. The Clintons were murderers. John Kerry was a Viet Cong traitor. Valerie Plame was CIA, but anti-Bush so blow her cover. Sorry, Casey, your mom's causing trouble so we'll have to slime her. That's the way you fight. Personal destruction. Not sporadic. A pattern. Already started in on Rider here. I'm congenitally stupid and can't read.

Bush claims to have visited 900 relatives of 272 soldiers, so your percentage is off. And you can see from Cindy's experience that these "visits" are screened and scripted and are pushed in the direction the White House wants them to be.

There's no reason in the world Bush can't give her fifteen minutes as a courtesy to her dead soldier son, if not as a courtesy to the soldier's mother. He'd have been wise to do that and be done with her, but he didn't because he's gutless and accepting responsibility for anything is not exactly his cup of tea.

I don't care if she's crazy or the Harlot of Babylon or whatever you want to call her, all of you should be ashamed of the way you have slimed and smeared the mother of a man who isn't here to defend her himself. You are lower than low in my book. You are the real soldier-spitters.

Posted by: Rider at August 16, 2005 05:39 PM

Rider,

I get tears in my eyes reading about the sacrifices made by U.S. soldiers and their families. It is wrenching for me, reading Blackfive's "Soldiers You Should Know" feature, but I do it because it's one of the few places to actually get a sense of a soldier's lot.

How dare you call me and people like me "soldier-spitters?"

How dare you?

Cindy Sheehan is a sad case. And to my mind, the saddest thing is the way she's being used by bored reporters in Crawford, TX and people like you.

Posted by: UtilityGuy at August 17, 2005 07:35 AM

People on YOUR side of the fence are vilifying, denigrating, and demonizing a dead American soldier's mom. People on YOUR side of the fence in so doing are spitting on a dead American soldier. This is despicable. How dare YOU? You take a road that is lower than low and then presume to prance around on your high horse about how much you love our soldiers. That claim has exactly zero credibility now. Zero.

Posted by: Rider at August 17, 2005 09:20 PM