California Conservative

Sheehan tells lies, both in person and in print.

Last Wednesday night, September 14, 2005, the Cindy Sheehan “Bring Them Home Tour” came to town. Of course my friends and I had to go. It’s not that I wanted to go, nor that I had any interest whatsoever in seeing Cindy Sheehan. But I feel a sense of duty to stand up for the soldiers. This is the way I fight for them while they’re fighting for us.

We brought our signs and as the event got underway, we approached the rally area. Ruth, my friend and initiator of our counter-protests, infiltrated the crowd. Always concerned about being polite and respecting others’ boundaries, I decided to throw caution to the wind and walked into the crowd as well. However, as the night went on, I realized that whatever discomfort the “anti-war” protesters felt by my presence pales in comparison to the disgust and disappointment that soldiers and their families feel as the activists continually shove their idiotic rhetoric down our throats.

As soon as the media saw our signs, clearly not pro-Cindy, they descended upon us. “Finally,” they must have thought, “an angle to this tired old story…”

The evening was spent giving interviews or debating with Cindy supporters. I planned on neither, but we did both. The crowd was predictably hostile to our message. Some spent the time to share more than one-liners. Others would just do a “drive by shooting”:, walk up to my face and say with a snarl, “Would you send your son? Huh, would you? Would you send your son?” My reply: “He’s only 13, but I did send my husband…” The average retort was to walk away. My impression was clearly that the majority of these anti-war protesters were not well-informed and could offer nothing but regurgitations of the standard rhetoric which has become the stuff of their poster slogans.

Here is a sampling of our conversations.

After a short while, I began to appreciate some of the badgering from these folks because it distracted from listening to the absolutely insulting speeches being given that evening. One speaker was a low ranking ex-Marine who’d apparently been to Iraq. He was the worst offender of the truth. He was also the only former military Cindy Sheehan could scrounge up in their popular movement. He said that the “battle of Fallujah was an American excuse to kill people and look like we’re actually doing something in Iraq.” Then he, a free American, mocked the Iraqi elections and compared them to the “stolen” elections of 2000 and 2004. He only forgot to mention how the President is drugging all these young gullible men and forcing them to sign on the dotted line.

The things said about President Bush were libelous at best. We never publicly criticized Clinton, and yet we suffered under 8 years of him as an Army family. Where were these war protesters during Haiti and Bosnia, or when Clinton bombed the pharmaceutical factor in the Sudan? Were those military “occupations” unjust as well?

During Cindy Sheehan’s speech, which was equally shallow, she yelled at me: “You, with the ‘Cindy Doesn’t Speak for Me’ sign…I never said I did!” This seemed odd to say as I was looking at her against the backdrop of an “America Stands With Cindy” banner, portraying herself with an intimate military connection (which is her sole authority to speak on this topic). But I simply said, “Fine!” and whipped out my “End Pacifism Now” sign instead.

Claiming that President Bush has made the country less safe, Sheehan cited hurricane Katrina: “All you have to do is look at New Orleans to see how vulnerable he’s made our country.” What?!

In the end, one peace-loving guy called me a “slut” (that was new for me) and another inexplicable term as I held my sign. A little angry lady shook her fists in my face and ranted about being a “liar like Bush.” Eventually, other supporters of the troops emerged from the crowd and talked with us about their beliefs. At one point, a young soldier came up to me and told me his story as I was talking to a peacenik for Cindy. He happened to be walking by and had returned from Iraq 2 weeks ago. He said: “You asked if we need to be in Iraq. The answer is, ‘We do.’” He very modestly explained himself and his experiences, leaving the Cindy supporter with nothing to say. So, my mission was accomplished. I wanted no soldier to walk by and feel that he is unappreciated.

The evening ended with Cindy crying, “Peace is beautiful….”, followed by a candle light vigil and a round of “Amazing Grace.” (I’m not kidding)

Cindy Sheehan has posted her *thoughts* on Michael Moore’s website. Here is an excerpt from her experience with us:

In Columbia, SC, yesterday, the Southern Leg of the Bus Tour spoke to a few hundred supporters and 2 counter protestors. One of the counter protestors had a sign that said: Support the Mission. I invited her to talk to me after the rally to explain to me what this every changing and ephemeral mission is now. She didn’t. We all know on August 29th, George said that we need to stay in Iraq to keep the oil fields from falling into the hands of terrorists. Is that the mission? Are we supporting our troops dying and innocent Iraqi people being killed for oil and greed? This doesn’t sound like anything I want to support.

Another example of Cindy’s lack of credibility. She exaggerates her crowd attendance by at least 2/3rds, and fails to mention that 75% of the people there were her entourage and handlers, and not supporters in Columbia. Moreover, the fact is there were more than 2 counter protesters. I know. We were there. Small lies.

Sheehan’s biggest fabrication is that she invited my friend Ruth, with her “Support the Troops: Support the Mission” sign, to talk to her after the rally to explain anything at all. That is a bald-faced lie. And aside from mentioning to me that she indeed doesn’t speak for me, she said nothing to us directly.

Cindy’s underhanded motivation is obvious: to make it look as if supporters of the military and the war in Iraq don’t have answers, that we don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re outnumbered and outwitted by her contrived rhetoric. The opposite is true in every case. But what can you expect from a women fixated with lies, and who manipulates the memory of her dead son to advance an activist agenda?

The Sheehanites I encountered on Wednesday can only exist in their own Private Idaho. They live in a disingenuous vacuum with no context of history, nor a desire to be honest. For them, the end justifies the means. This is why the anti-war movement is weakening and losing credibility with every sound bite. More power to you, Cindy!

Cross-posted at The Roundtable

UPDATE:
Compare and contrast: Local Media Coverage
WIS ch. 10
WLTX ch. 19
The State
WCNC

UPDATE: (9/21)
Media Bias? Amy Proctor writes to WLTX and gets a reply

UPDATE II:
SisterToldjah reports that Cindy gets “hurt” easily
Howie says, “Whaaaa!!!”

RELATED:
Soundbites In The Big Apple: Cindy Sheehan
Still Needs A Permit To Rant
Cat Fighting: Cindy vs. Hillary
Cindy Sheehan: She’s Back, And Bashing
Our Troops In New Orleans
More on Sheehan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Activism, Author: Amy Proctor, Liberals, Military, Patriotism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.