Cindy Sheehan's son Casey died in Sadr City last year, and thatfact is supposed to put her beyond reproach. For as the New YorkTimes' Maureen Dowd informed us: "The moral authority of parents whobury children killed in Iraq is absolute."
Really? Well, what about those other parents who've buriedchildren killed in Iraq? There are, sadly, hundreds of them: Theyhonor their loved ones' service to the nation, and so they don't makethe news. There's one Cindy Sheehan, and she's on TV 'round theclock. Because, if you're as heavily invested as Dowd in the notionthat those "killed in Iraq" are "children," then Sheehan's status asgrieving matriarch is a bonanza.
They're not children in Iraq; they're grown-ups who made their owndecision to join the military. That seems to be difficult for theleft to grasp. Ever since America's all-adult, all-volunteer armywent into Iraq, the anti-war crowd have made a sustained effort tocharacterize them as "children." If a 13-year-old wants to have anabortion, that's her decision and her parents shouldn't get a look-in. If a 21-year-old wants to drop to the broadloom in Bill Clinton'sOval Office, she's a grown woman and free to do what she wants. But,if a 22- or 25- or 37-year-old is serving his country overseas, he'sa wee "child" who isn't really old enough to know what he's doing.
I get many e-mails from soldiers in Iraq, and they sound a lotmore grown-up than most Ivy League professors and certainly thanMaureen Dowd, who writes like she's auditioning for a minorsupporting role in "Sex And The City."
The infantilization of the military promoted by the left is deeplyinsulting to America's warriors but it suits the anti-war crowd'spurposes. It enables them to drone ceaselessly that "of course" they"support our troops," because they want to stop these poor confusedmoppets from being exploited by the Bush war machine.
I resisted writing about "Mother Sheehan" (as one leftie hasproposed designating her), as it seemed obvious that she was at besta little unhinged by grief and at worst mentally ill. It's one thingto mourn a son's death and even to question the cause for which hedied, but quite another to roar that he was "murdered by the Bushcrime family."
Also: "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died foroil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tellme my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana . . . You getAmerica out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine."
And how about this? "America has been killing people on thiscontinent since it was started. This country is not worth dying for."That was part of her warm-up act for a speech by Lynne Stewart, the"activist" lawyer convicted of conspiracy for aiding the terroristsconvicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
You can see why Lynne's grateful to Sheehan. But why is ElizabethEdwards sending out imploring letters headlined "Support CindySheehan's Right To Be Heard"? The politics of this isn't difficult:The more Cindy Sheehan is heard the more obvious it is she's thrownher lot in with kooks most Americans would give a wide berth to.
Don't take my word for it, ask her family. Casey Sheehan'sgrandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins put out the followingstatement:
"The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and wehave been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with thepolitical motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She nowappears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at theexpense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of theSheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President,silently, with prayer and respect."
Ah, well, they're not immediate family, so they lack Cindy's"moral authority." But how about Casey's father, Pat Sheehan? LastFriday, in Solano County Court, Casey's father Pat Sheehan filed fordivorce. As the New York Times explained Cindy's "separation,""Although she and her estranged husband are both Democrats, she saidshe is more liberal than he is, and now, more radicalized."
Toppling Saddam and the Taliban (Mrs. Sheehan opposes U.S.intervention in Afghanistan, too), destroying al-Qaida's trainingcamps and helping 50 million Muslims on the first steps to freesocieties aren't worth the death of a single soldier. But CindySheehan's hatred of Bush is worth the death of her marriage. Watchingher and her advanced case of Bush Derangement Syndrome on TV, I feelthe way I felt about that mentally impaired Aussie concert pianistthey got to play at the Oscars a few years.
Yet in the wreckage of Pat and Cindy Sheehan's marriage there issurely a lesson for the Democratic Party. As Cindy says, they're bothDemocrats, but she's "more liberal" and "more radicalized." There area lot of less liberal and less radicalized Dems out there: They'resoft-left-ish on health care and the environment and education and soforth; many have doubts about the war, but they love their country,they have family in the military, and they don't believe indishonoring American soldiers to make a political point. The problemfor the Democratic Party is that the Cindys are now the loudestvoice: Michael Moore, Howard Dean, Moveon.org, and Air America, theflailing liberal radio network distracting attention from its ownfinancial scandals by flying down its afternoon host Randi Rhodes todo her show live from Camp Casey. The last time I heard Miss Rhodesshe was urging soldiers called up for Iraq to refuse to go -- i.e.,to desert.
On unwatched Sunday talk shows, you can still stumble across theoccasional sane, responsible Dem. But, in the absence of any seriousintellectual attempt to confront their long-term decline, all theenergy on the left is with the fringe. The Democratic Party is acoalition of Pat Sheehans and Cindy Sheehans, and the noisier theCindys get the more estranged the Pats are likely to feel.
Sorry about that, but, if Mrs. Sheehan can insist her son's corpsebe the determining factor in American policy on Iraq, I don't see whyher marriage can't be a metaphor for the state of the DemocraticParty.
Casey Sheehan was a 21-year old man when he enlisted in 2000. Here-enlisted for a second tour, and he died after volunteering for arescue mission in Sadr City. Mrs. Sheehan says she wishes she'ddriven him to Canada, though that's not what he would have wished,and it was his decision.
His mother has now left Crawford, officially because her motherhas had a stroke, but promising to return. I doubt she will. Perhapsdeep down she understands she's a woman whose grief curdled into anarcissistic rage, and most Americans will not follow where she'sgone -- to the wilder shores of anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-Iraq, anti-Afghanistan, anti-Israel, anti-American paranoia. Casey Sheehan'sservice was not the act of a child. A shame you can't say the sameabout his mom's new friends.
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