The Legacy Of 'Camp Casey'

August 26, 2005

 

As Cindy Sheehan breaks down “Camp Casey” in Crawford, Texas, it's interesting to look back at the progression of events and how Ms. Sheehan's true persona slowly emerged over the month of August.

 

She showed up at the beginning of the month as a grieving mother. The media swarmed around her every move and reported her every word. She claimed that all she wanted was a meeting with the president. The media excoriated President Bush for not cutting his bike ride with Lance Armstrong short to meet with her for just a few precious moments.

 

Then the truth began to trickle out. Cindy Sheehan had, in fact, already met with President Bush after the death of her son, Casey, in Iraq. She not only had met with him, she had praised him to his face. We also slowly learned that Ms. Sheehan was a well-known liberal activist from California who had championed all sorts of nutball causes. It came to light that her efforts in Crawford were being backed by radical left-wing organizations like MoveOn.org.

 

Then she announced she was not paying her taxes for 2004 because the president and the U.S. government had killed her son. Media outlets, those that chose to report this curious little fact, omitted the part about her income. Cindy, as far as we can tell, has no job therefore no taxes are owed.

 

By this time, I began to wonder what the rest of her family thought of her. As it turned out, her in-laws had repudiated her position on the war and her husband had decided to file for divorce.

 

After a couple of weeks of listening to Cindy drone on, parents of fallen soldiers finally began to fight back. They let it be known that Cindy did not speak for them. “It's fine for people to grieve their own way,” said Matt Matula, whose 20-year-old son was killed last year. “It aggravates me to see them using other people's names to further their cause.”

 

The longer she stayed out in the hot Texas sun, the more her façade began to melt away. On August 22, her true colors came through. She announced that the terrorists killing Americans in Iraq were not terrorists at all. In fact, she said, they were “freedom fighters” fighting to defend their own country. Forget the fact that the suicide bombers were being imported from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other nations in the Middle East. By Cindy's own logic, that would make her own son the terrorist.

 

Then, the coup de grace of nuttiness. Cindy Sheehan claimed to be “channeling” her slain son. She said he was in Heaven and was saying “George Bush, you are really an idiot.”

 

I'm not sure when or where Cindy Sheehan became separated from her sanity but it's the kind of lunacy that brings out the other kooks like Joan Baez, Margot Kidder and Michael Moore. I, like Ms. Sheehan, grieve for her son. Unlike her, I also grieve for the countless hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis who were killed by Saddam Hussein. Thank you, Cindy Sheehan. Thanks for bringing Casey into the world to serve so nobly. Also, thanks for exposing your cause for what it is – an ungrateful, undignified crowd of pacifists who think the only evil in the world resides in the United States and that all who oppose us are “freedom fighters.” Casey and his comrades are the true freedom fighters. And they're fighting for our freedom to live our lives as we see fit and to speak our minds. Even if your name is Cindy Sheehan.