February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Sheehan, an Irish-American whose soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in April 2004, wants to meet with the president. She seeks to express her personal sense of loss and to urge him to bring all American troops home from Iraq without delay.
Bush, who in fact did meet with Sheehan shortly after her son’s death, has so far refused to meet the bereaved mother a second time.
Cindy Sheehan’s pain is beyond what most of us can comprehend. To lose a child is a horror; if one were to believe — as Sheehan evidently does – that the loss of that child’s life came as a result of a conflict recklessly and pointlessly entered into, the grief must be close to unbearable.
All that said, it also needs to be acknowledged that there are some complicating factors in the Sheehan saga.
First, some of the most radical fringes of the anti-war movement have clearly come to see her pain and her protest as convenient vehicles for their own political purposes.
Second, other members of the Sheehan family who remain supportive of the president have disavowed the Crawford protest.
Nevertheless, Sheehan’s protest has served one valuable purpose – it has provided a focal point for increasing and widespread discontent about the conduct of the war.
A Rasmussen Report poll released last week indicated 46 percent of Americans believe the U.S. mission in Iraq will eventually be seen as a failure.
How to get out of Iraq with honor is a topic for another day. But it does not seem too much to ask that the president should at least consent to a brief, private meeting with Cindy Sheehan.
He has nothing to lose by treating her with grace and empathy.