Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, whose son was an Iraq War combat fatality, led a delegation of about 50 to President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch yesterday and demanded to talk to him. She intended to ask him why her son died for nothing.
Almost needless to say, Sheehan was not allowed to talk to Bush. She had to make do with a deputy sheriff and a couple spear carriers from the presidential entourage. However, she did something there hasn't been nearly enough of for the last two and half years by serving up a generous helping of insolent, aggressive, and discomforting noise, and right at the would-be dictator's gate.
We need a lot more of this kind of thing. Visible, vocal, aggressive, and rude opposition to the war has been MIA since this mess started. I think we're going to see more of it now, particularly from parents who have either lost children to Iraq, or have kids currently posted there.
It's the people most directly threatened who are most likely to initiate action. The non-stop antiwar agitation of the Vietnam era resulted from the draft as much as the war, and was fueled mainly by the young men most at risk, and later by veterans as well. Now it's time for middle-aged parents -- the bereaved and potentially bereaved -- to step up and open a second front in the Iraq.
A second front is what it's going to take.
There's a mass demonstration scheduled for September 24 in D.C. Unfortunately, it's being orchestrated by the group known as Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a kind of faux-sixties outfit that tends to get bogged down in a bottomless agenda of liberal causes such as the South Moluccan independence movement and animal rights. What's needed is a single-issue demonstration led by a mainstream political coalition, one that can appeal to surban moderates as well as professional liberals and other assorted bleeding hearts.
Willing to step up, Ms. Sheehan? It's not too much to ask, or too big a stretch.
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