"You didn't care about your son, and you're a phony," the irate and probably inebriated man screamed at me as he followed me and my 20-year-old daughter and two of her friends out of the store where we had been shopping in our old home town of Vacaville, California. My months of activism, and life in general, have taught me a few lessons; one of which is: never argue with a drunk person ... that's a life lesson. My activism has taught me a few more lessons that have been learned the hard way.
One of the main lessons I have learned these past months, since BushCo's war of terror took the life of my oldest son, is that one should also never argue with someone who is still so blind and/or so naive to stubbornly hold on to the gospel according to George and believe that Saddam had WMD or ties with al-Qaeda. The few of our fellow Americans who still support George and the other mendacious neo-cons should be pitied and prayed to their God for ... not argued with, because, trust me, it is a lose-lose situation.
I would have loved to rationally discuss things with Drunky McRepublican (in vino veritas) when he yelled at me and the girls that I didn't care about my son. How can anyone, even a Bush supporter, believe that a mother doesn't care about one of her children? Did the tipsy man have the same kind of relationship with his mother that George apparently had with his? Does he truly believe that I don't care about Casey or mourn his needless murder with every passing moment of each day? But, this man had two strikes against him: he was drunk and naive enough to still believe the felonious lies of George.
I wish I could have shown to Mr. McRepublican the Washington Post article that reported the Senate's new release of the (purposefully) faulty intelligence that our government used to justify the invasion of Iraq when he called me a "phony." George, Dick, Rummy, Condi and Colin all used this cherry-picked and shady intelligence to convince people like my hostile harrasser that Saddam had ties to al-Qaeda. When presidential spokes-liar, Tony Snow, was asked about the report, he actually called it "old news" and said if people wanted to "re-litigate that, that's fine."
This pronouncement by Snow is something else that is phony: When has the Senate Intelligence Report ever been litigated in the first place? The portion of the report that just came out was suppressed for two years so it wouldn't come out before the 2004 presidential debacle. I would love for it to be litigated right now. I would be content if the above mentioned members of the Bush Regime were to be subpoenaed and hauled into court to answer charges that they fraudulently led our country into an illegal and immoral war based on lies and deceptions. I would love to finally have justice for the murder of my son and the pointless deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people who should be alive if not for the phoniness of this administration. Not too long ago, George lied again when he said that he never connected Saddam and Osama. How many lies are we the people going to let them feed us before we are fed up with their bilious words and get out of our comfort zones to demand accountability and action?
My girls and I finally escaped from the ignorant loudmouth in the parking lot, but we will never be able to escape from the fact that Casey won't ever again come home alive. We will never be able to convert the "old news" of his death to old mourning because he was killed for the lies and the complicit silence of so many. BushCo scarred many members of Casey's family and extended family, but how many must we multiply this heartache by? The swath of sorrow left by BushCo is deeply cutting and immeasurable.
Please join your voices with the patriotic voices in DC at Camp Democracy who are calling stridently for accountability and action.
Don't wait until the creeping militarism and budding fascism of the Bush State comes knocking at your door for one of your loved ones. It will happen, unless we stand up and say "no" with our loudest and most annoying voices.
It's not old news to me, Tony, the lies are deeply personal.
--------
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey A. Sheehan and the founder of the Camp Casey Peace Institute in Crawford, Texas. She is also the author of Peace Mom: One Mom's Journey from Heartache to Activism, due soon from Atria Books.
