From the New York Post --
August 16, 2005 -- It's impossible not to appreciate the pain and anguish that Cindy Sheehan, now camped out by President Bush's Texas ranch, has felt since her soldier son, Casey, was killed in action in Iraq.
Even Sheehan's belief that her son died in what she now terms "a dishonorable cause" is, in a way, understandable — even though most of the families of those killed in the War on Terror would strongly disagree with her.
But Cindy Sheehan's vigil in hopes of getting a second meeting with the president (their first was last year, two months after Casey's death) has attracted widespread media attention.
Indeed, her new campaign as the so-called "peace mom" has energized the antiwar movement, fueled by constant and favorable coverage from the national news reporters — now bivouacked in Crawford, Texas, bored silly and more than willing to portray her as "the symbol for the entire antiwar movement."
Like any other American, she is entitled to a personal agenda. Sadly, the one she's developed is ugly.
Cindy Sheehan is a fully fledged member of the Michael Moore wing of the Democratic Party. She rails about how terrorism could be ended if only Israel would "get out of Palestine" — and compares Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to "Hitler and Stalin."
Moreover:
* She says that the same news media that have so adoringly covered her these past two weeks are nothing but "a propaganda tool for the government."
* She charges that without the Internet, America "would already be a fascist state."
* Speaking last April at a rally supporting radical lawyer Lynne Stewart (a woman convicted of abetting terrorism), Sheehan declared that America "is not worth dying for" and "has been killing people . . . since we first stepped foot on this continent."
* Her activities are being coordinated by Democratic political strategists — which helps explain why her statements parrot Democratic talking points, such as how "the Downing Street Memo proves that" Bush "lied to the American people."
Again, she is entitled to her views. [She sounds just like Barry and Johnny.]
But those are the views of an activist; her vigil has degenerated into high-profile political theater — if, indeed, that wasn't the point in the first place. And by her own account, she wants "a good meeting with the president" not really to talk, but rather to lecture him on the evils of the war in Iraq.
Little, in other words, would be served by the president taking part in such a politically manipulated media event. (And, again, he met with Mrs. Sheehan last year, after which she praised his sincerity and empathy with her loss.)
To be sure, all this has presented the White House with a public-relations dilemma. But President Bush has met with more than 900 relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan — including some who have angrily confronted him over the war.
Most, however, have urged him to stay the course. And they agree that to cut and run — as demanded by Cindy Sheehan and her handlers — would send a terrible message to the people of Iraq. And, indeed, to the entire world.