Not only is my area of the Florida Panhandle one of the reddest of the red areas, but it is smack-dab in the heart of a military area with several air bases. In recent weeks, however, the LTEs and some of the editorials have been growing increasingly anti-Bush and anti-neocon. Still, I was dumbstruck this morning at seeing this front-page article, headlined "Local families share protestor's grief, pain," accompanied by a photo of one local woman whose son died in Iraq, who says she thinks Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan.
It starts by saying that some local family members of troops killed in Iraq support what Cindy is doing, while others don't. The reporter speaks with three of these people, two of whom back Cindy and one who gives the usual pat remarks supporting the leadership "100%," although he exhibits great kindness and understanding toward Cindy as a bereaved mother.
Some words from the two local military moms who say they back Cindy follow.
The first woman says she sympathizes with Cindy, and that she and her daughter are talking about going to Crawford to support her. She says she differentiates between criticizing those whose decision it was to invade Iraq and supporting the troops, whom she considers heroes who are "dutifully and courageously" obeying orders.
She wants Bush to meet with Sheehan and explain his rationale for invading Iraq, because the reasons he gave, such as the search for WMD, have since proven to be untrue. She is especially bothered by mentions she's heard on TV about Iraq being about "oil money."
She wants Bush to give us some answers.
I'm amazed that our paper has printed this admission that Bush's reasons for going to Iraq have been proven wrong, and even went so far as to publish the quote about "oil money." Although it's attributed to the woman they interviewed, a year or two ago I never saw anything anybody said questioning Bush in this paper.
The other Sheehan supporter is a grandmother and mother of several current and former servicemembers. One of her grandsons was killed by a roadside bomb near Fallujah.
What she has garnered from what she's seen of Cindy in the media is that the recruits are being sent over too soon, before they've had enough training, and they are not ready for combat. Her grandson was deployed soon after boot camp. She says that if it's not possible to spend the time to properly prepare the troops before sending them into combat, she thinks they shouldn't be there.
I haven't heard this point made before, and though I don't support us being in Iraq at all, I think what she says does make sense. A friend's son spent very little time in training before being sent over, just a few months, and he's now working in a highly dangerous position as a sniper. But though this (to me, anyway) doesn't speak to the main points Cindy's been making, the grandmother continues with something that does:
She asks what it is that our troops are fighting for, saying that they are losing their lives, and that this has been going on for too long.
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