“Today is the beginning of the end of the occupation of Iraq”  Cindy Sheehan, August 6, 2005

There is some confusion about a meeting between Cindy Sheehan and George Bush in 2004 now being spun in the newspapers.  More than that, there has been an attempt to smear Cindy Sheehan – to portray her as someone who does not know her own mind or heart – implying that she was consoled by Bush last June, and has become an anti-war activist in the last year.  The polls say that 35% more of the American people have withdrawn their support for the war in the last year.  The people are not buying the lies, and the media is, timidly, beginning to tell the truth.   Sixty percent of the American people say that there was no legal or ethical basis for the war on Iraq, and that they do not support it.

Here are some basic facts about what has happened in America over the last four years that reveal the war on Iraq for what it is.  Insane and criminal.  Here are some facts and dates that should dispel any confusion in the media about Cindy Sheehan’s confrontation with George Bush.  “Mr. Bush, meet the truth.”

Cindy Sheehan’s son Casey was killed April 4, 2004.

She met with George Bush in June of 2004.

The war on Iraq is illegal.  Kofi Annan said so September of 2004.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq war illegal, says Annan
UN chief Kofi Annan tells the BBC the Iraq war was illegal and warns elections
are at …Thursday, 16 September, 2004, 09:21 GMT 10:21 UK

The war on Iraq is unconstitutional. Congress did not declare war.

Group sues to prevent war
Lawmakers, soldiers, parents seek injunction against Bush, Rumsfeld
Posted: February 13, 2003
8:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Democratic lawmakers, United States soldiers and parents of servicemen filed a lawsuit today in federal court, claiming the imminent war with Iraq is illegal and unconstitutional.
Sixteen people, including six members of Congress, five active military personnel and parents of troops deployed seek an injunction against President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from launching an invasion.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Boston, contends Bush will break the law if the United States invades Iraq.
“The president is not a king,” the group’s lead attorney, John Bonifaz, said at a news conference announcing the suit. “He does not have the power to wage war against another country absent a congressional declaration of war. Congress has not declared war.”

The war on Iraq was not made legal by any argument since its inception. There were no WMD, as reported widely in the Media October  7,  2004.

CIA’s final report: No WMD found in Iraq – Conflict in Iraq
In his final report, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that
the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has gone “as far as feasible” and has …

There was no connection with al Queda and Hussein/Iraq, as was widely reported in the media June of 2004.

Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed
By Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 17, 2004; Page A01
The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration’s main justifications for the war in Iraq.

There was no connection with the invasion of Iraq and 911, and it has not brought democracy or stability to Iraq… and would not, as reported by the Pentagon’s own Defense Science Board in the fall of 2004.

US admits war for ‘hearts and minds’ is now lost; Neil McKay, Investigative Reporter, Sunday Herald;
Defense Science Board
Pentagon Defense Science Board Report 2004-12-13. “There is no yearning among
Muslim `masses” to be liberated by the US. Their desire is to be liberated from what they see as the tyrannies that the U.S. promotes and defends.”

As predicted in that report, the war on Iraq has incited civil war, caused the death of more than 1,800 Americans and 128,000 Iraqi civilians, and has strengthened the cause of terrorism.

Despair is the breeding ground and root cause of terrorism.  That’s what Kofi Annan said in the wake of the London bombings and the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Many Americans are in despair that Bush is in office illegally and is conducting an illegal war through illegal means and financing his ambition with innocent lives. Staying the course in an illegal war is staying an illegal course. This is not a “noble cause” this is a crime… a national crime and an international crime.

“Bush’s deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin, and national security adviser Stephen Hadley met with Sheehan for about 45 minutes at her campsite Saturday afternoon, but Sheehan remained dissatisfied.”  At one point during their 45 minute meeting with Cindy Sheehan, Steve Hadley reminded Cindy Sheehan that now Iraqis could vote.  (An election that Sy Hersh has reported was not legal.)  Is this what they’ve come up with to console Mrs. Sheehan, and explain her son’s death?  There are 128,000 less Iraqis to vote in any election since this illagal war was launched in March of 2003.

It was Steve Hadley and Joe Hagin. They sat down with me and were talking with me asking “What do you want to do?” I said I want the president to explain what was the noble cause that my son died in, because that’s what he said the other day when those 14 marines were killed. He said their families can rest assured that their sons and daughters died for a noble cause. And I said, “What is that noble cause?”

But anyway, I finally got to a point where I just said, “You know what? I might be a grieving mother but I am not stupid. I don’t believe your lies and I really don’t believe you believe them either.”

Bush’s argument that soldiers like Casey Sheehan died for a “noble cause” is abhorrent. Cindy Sheehan’s action in confronting Bush is entirely appropriate. She very well may be arrested tomorrow, and she may be the first of many people to be arrested.  And that may be what it takes… and it may be a long hard struggle to come.

The only thing to I have to offer is that while we are talking about “speaking truth to power” I think it is well to remember that:

The only power is in the truth.

This is why, I think, Mr. Bush could not look at the photographs of Casey during Cindy Sheehan’s meeting with him in June of last year, and why he could not say her name either.  I have looked at it a long time, and I cannot answer the basic question Cindy Sheehan has for George Bush.  “Why did Casey die?”  None of us should give up until Bush can answer this question.

The delusion we must all wake from is that the people are powerless, or that the case is lost before the battle is waged.  The people are not powerless… and that is the democratic form of government.  The case for justice is never lost.    Mrs. Sheehan is a great woman, and a great leader in the struggle for bringing peace to Iraq, bringing the troops home, and bringing accountablility into American government.

A good place to start is with telling the truth.

That is what Mrs. Sheehan is asking for, and that is what George Bush cannot provide. It is within the rights of all American citizens to demand the truth from George Bush, and to demand truth in reporting. Mrs. Sheehan cannot be smeared — and her message cannot be distorted — in that she represents a far greater portion of the American public than those who have lost children in the war on Iraq… she represents all Americans who have been lied to and who have sacrificed, all of them, security at home and integrity in government. Finally, Mrs. Sheehan has what George Bush lacks, and what he is desparately seeking to advance his cause of “staying the course” in Iraq. Mrs. Sheehan has the moral authority to speak for her son, and to object to Bush using the death of her son to advance an illegal war.

The second question, after “Why did Casey Sheehan die?” is there by implication. “Did Casey Sheehan die in vain?” This is the question that should not be asked, and cannot be answered… not by a corrupt administration, and not, certainly, by a grieving mother. Cindy Sheehan’s fight to bring an end to the war in Iraq is the only way to make sense of the horrific losses suffered during this war… and, in the undercurrent of her battle to get to the truth, there is the ongoing struggle for democracy and civil liberties at home.