SHEEHAN MEETS McCAIN
By Peter Fredson
September 28, 2005
Cindy Sheehan has aroused several hundred conservative bloggers, all determined to Swiftboat her in very strong terms. It seems that she met with Senator John McCain, and later called him a "war-monger." This, to a loyal Bush supporter is intolerable.
She and several supporters met with John McCain. She said that McCain simply told the group what George Bush might have said, and that she didn't believe his answers to her questions.
She stated: "He is a warmonger, and I'm not. I believe this war is not keeping America safer."
McCain said, "She's entitled to opinion but we have fundamental disagreements." He thought that their conversation was just "a rehash" of opinions that everyone knew about.
Cindy talked to Chris Matthews, the Hardball Host on TV, and said: "I have a campaign going, called Meet with the Moms. We have a few questions we are asking each senator and Congress person. He (McCain)) was ready with the answers."
When pressed about what was the noble cause of fighting in Iraq, Sheehan said McCain replied, "Freedom and democracy."
"And then, how many more of our nation's children are you willing to risk, their lives are you willing to sacrifice because it is a war based on lies?"
MATTHEWS: Good question. What did he say?
SHEEHAN: He said that's a hard question, because he hopes and prays every day that our children won't be killed. But they are being killed every day. We have had 40 killed in September so far.
"Then another question is, what are you doing to bring our troops home from the nightmare of Iraq? He says that we're trying to train troops, which is really hard when they get blown to pieces just standing in line for the applications, you know?"
When asked why McCain was not more anti-war Sheehan said:
SHEEHAN: "Well, a vested interest in maybe if he is going to run for president, he thinks he has to look strong and look like he's capable,"
MATTHEWS: "Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, everybody who might conceivably run for the Democratic nomination in 2008 is backing this war. Why are they doing it?"
SHEEHAN: "Because I believe that they feel like, if they don't, the nation will perceive them as weak. A strong, good Democratic candidate has to stand up and say, it's a war based on lies. We should never have gone there. We shouldn't be there. And let's lead our troops out."
MATTHEWS: "Well, are you going to run for office on the Democratic line anywhere?
SHEEHAN: No, no, I'm not going to, because I think I can do more good, like you said, holding their feet to the fire.
Cindy stated: "It's hard to tell these stories. But we do it to heal ourselves and to heal this country. We do it because we have been broken, and we don't want anyone else to be broken. We're doing it for the innocent Iraqis in harm's way, and we're doing it for the other families, so they don't have to hear that knock on the door."
McCain after the meeting said that he believes military action in Iraq was justified. He said that he believes former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein would have attempted to acquire weapons of mass destruction had he remained in power and that "I saw the mass graves of thousands of people who were killed by Saddam Hussein."
Meanwhile McCain kowtows to Bush like a sycophant, even after Bush slandered him in 2000. Whenever Bush needs a loyal person for a photo-op, McCain shows up, last time carrying a birthday cake, just as Katrina was poised to hit New Orleans.
Party discipline evidently comes before any discussion about pulling troops out of Iraq
THAT'S WHY the right bloggers are doing their best to derail the Cindy bandwagon, casting her as an anti-American, "professional griever", "A nut case", "Publicity hound", "Treasonous and Hateful".
Republican demonstrators trotted out pro-military moms to blunt Sheehan's message.
They launched a "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" cross-country bus tour. Their rally drew only a few hundred people to the Washington Mall, holding up signs like "Freedom Isn't Free" and "Saddam Is a WMD" as they listened to speakers like Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy, who accused Sheehan of "whoring the good name of her son" and carrying out a "left-wing socialist agenda."
The Karl Rove mantra is repeated often: "To criticize the War Time president is treason and will get our brave boys over there in Iraq killed. We must fight those terrorists over there, or they will come over here. We must honor those good and brave boys or they will have died in vain. We are bringing peace and democracy to Iraq. And, besides, Saddam is EVIL."
For skeptics of the Bush assertion that he is bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq they say that you can't do that by cruise missiles, helicopter gun ships, attack planes and bombs or lobbing grenades into Iraqi houses, knocking down houses, killing Iraqi civilians without even counting their dead, troops with deadly weapons at the ready terrorizing anyone out on the street.
Evidently Bush and Condi have unique definitions of Peace, Democracy and Freedom ready to apply to Iran and Syria as soon as they find a good excuse, or a very good lie, to invade those countries with their version of Shock and Awe and bunker buster bombs for the greater glory and profit of their Neocon cronies.