Can we please stop granting Cindy Sheehan "moral authority" on all things that involve the anti-war movement? As far as spokespeople for a movement go, I would hope the anti-war crowd could do much better than this. Yesterday was just her most recent tumble into idiocy, as she had the opportunity to meet with Sen. John McCain. Mind you, McCain does support the war effort, so it is not surprising that the two didn't come to any sort of agreement on the war, but to then label the Senator a "war monger" simply because she didn't agree with him is a little much. Especially given McCain's history as being a veteran of the Vietnam War and suffering as a prisoner of war during that conflict, certainly Sen. McCain has quite an understanding of what our troops may be going through at this time, even moreso than Cindy Sheehan.
Not that this is the first stupid thing she has said or done, just one of many. Like the email she sent off to the producers of Nightline, who had her on a show about whether we should stay the course in Iraq. Cindy felt she wasn't properly treated during the show, and proceeded to email the producers of the show to tell them so and to tell them that her son died for Israel. Or maybe we could go back to the two different accounts she offered from her first meeting with President Bush, the first given a few days afterward to her local paper, the second given about a year after that to the New York Times. Let's not forget her blog, where she described mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Iraq but don't share Cindy's point of view as mother's of "murder and mayhem". She also took one of her blogging opportunities to tell the President to get US troops out of occupied New Orleans. She claims her son Casey didn't join the armed services thinking there would be a war, which may be true, but he reenlisted when a war was going on. She has also referred to the President as a "bastard" and "the world's biggest terrorist". If this is what passes as a voice of reason, then I will gladly be unreasonable.
The anti-war movement deserves better than this. The Bush doctrine of post 9/11 that states the US will take preemptive action on those states that either sponsor or support terrorism relies on the United States have accurate intelligence and a clear definitive strategy on achieving objectives. If Iraq is the first example of this, then the doctrine is on it's face an abject failure. The intelligence was wrong, and the strategy badly handled to this point and if this is the best we can do, then the whole Bush doctrine needs to be rethought before it is even contemplated again. Cindy Sheehan's name calling and Jewish conspiracy theories get us no closer to solutions, rather just further away from the importance of the issues at hand.
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