Cindy Sheehan Calls It Quits
Anti-War Activist And Mom Of Killed G.I. In Iraq Resigns Role As "Face" Of Movement
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Photo
Cindy Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She has since emerged as one of the most vocal and high-profile opponents of the war. (AFP/Getty Images)
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"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.
"I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal," she said.
Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, Calif., lost her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She has since emerged as one of the most vocal and high-profile opponents of the war, drawing international attention nearly two years ago when she camped outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch to protest the war.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost," Sheehan said.
"I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources," she said.
In announcing her decision in a statement released to the liberal blog Daily Kos, Sheehan said the protest had taken an enormous physical and emotional toll on her.
Sheehan said she had sacrificed a 29-year marriage and endured threats to put all her energy into stopping the war.
"I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times," Sheehan said.
But she said the most devastating conclusion she had reached "was that Casey did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think".
Fueling Sheehan's decision to end her public protest was frustration with national politics as well her unsuccessful attempts to work "within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life."
"It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions," Sheehan said.
Cindy Sheehan started her protest small in August 2005, but it quickly drew national attention. Over the following two years, she drew huge crowds as she spoke at protest events, but she also drew a great deal of criticism.
When she had first taken on Mr. Bush, Sheehan was a darling of the liberal left. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used," she wrote.
"I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'right or left', but 'right and wrong,"' the diary says.
Sheehan criticized "blind party loyalty" as a danger, no matter which side it involved, and said the current two-party system is "corrupt" and "rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland."
Sheehan paid for a 5-acre lot about 7 miles from Mr. Bush's ranch last month so protesters would have a place to gather while the president is at his ranch. Last year, she started out camped in ditches along the road leading to Mr. Bush's ranch, until county officials banned roadside parking and camping. A sympathetic landowner then let the group gather on his 1-acre lot near the ranch.
"Camp Casey has served its purpose," Sheehan said. "It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too...which makes the property even more valuable."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 419 CommentsThank you, Cindy, for the good fight!!!!
For all you liberals who "think" that CBS JUST reports the news..............well here's the most important part of Cindy's story.
Gee I wonder why CBS didn't print this???
Oh well we can all keep "pretending" that America doesn't have a "liberal bias" in our their reporting...........right?
Here you go what CBS didn't want Americans to read:
Sheehan, however, said she had become increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic Party. In an open letter to the Democratic members of Congress on Saturday, however, she announced that she was leaving the Party because she believed its leaders had failed to change the country's course in Iraq.
"I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a 'tool' of the Democratic Party." Sheehan wrote. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used."
Posted by mike71067 at 09:37 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
Bawhahahahahhaha
What is unreal is people like you who take everything from your country and give nothing to it, you bash everything our government has to say, slander our elected leaders, but, I will bet my bottom dollar you are going to want your social security check and medicare.
You, cindy , are a common piece of trash, good riddance.
Posted by yurpallid at 09:38 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
Posted by mike71067 at 09:37 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
Well there you go again CBS .......so here I go again.
What CBS left out of their liberal story:
Sheehan, however, said she had become increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic Party. In an open letter to the Democratic members of Congress on Saturday, however, she announced that she was leaving the Party because she believed its leaders had failed to change the country's course in Iraq.
"I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a 'tool' of the Democratic Party." Sheehan wrote. "However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used."
Posted by maccar555 at 09:38 AM : May 29, 2007
...yes but she now realizes that the problem rests with EVERYONE, Republican and Democrat.
So go ahead and blame the current Administration and leave out all those other people who are hiding from the blame.
Yeah, those Democrats sure got you snowed, Why don't you read her full text letter if you agree with her cause so much and you'll see where she found the REAL source and cause of the problems that finally prompted her to resign.
What is unreal is people like you who take everything from your country and give nothing to it, you bash everything our government has to say, slander our elected leaders, but, I will bet my bottom dollar you are going to want your social security check and medicare.
You, cindy , are a common piece of trash, good riddance.
Posted by yurpallid at 09:38 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
What is unreal is people like you who take everything from your country and give nothing to it, you bash everything our government has to say, slander our elected leaders, but, I will bet my bottom dollar you are going to want your social security check and medicare.
You, cindy , are a common piece of trash, good riddance.
Posted by yurpallid at 09:38 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
I second that
Posted by mike71067 at 09:37 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
...
PS
.
.
maybe , some day some will punch your tickets out, then we can all take a pizz on you two clowns.
Posted by usadvisor101 at 09:56 AM : May 29, 2007
TYPICAL NeoCommie
...
Posted by mike71067 at 09:37 AM : May 29, 2007
EXCELLENT POST
...
PS
.
.
maybe , some day some will punch your tickets out, then we can all take a pizz on you two clowns.
Posted by usadvisor101 at 09:56 AM : May 29, 2007
TYPICAL NeoCommie
...
I bet one thing is certain we will not forget them in November 2007, on super Tuesday.
Have a nice day tratiors.
The Democrats do not need her anymore. Of course she is not fighting the Democrats, that is why she is leaving the public eye.
Posted by maccar555 at 09:38 AM : May 29, 2007
...yes but she now realizes that the problem rests with EVERYONE, Republican and Democrat.
So go ahead and blame the current Administration and leave out all those other people who are hiding from the blame.
Yeah, those Democrats sure got you snowed, Why don't you read her full text letter if you agree with her cause so much and you'll see where she found the REAL source and cause of the problems that finally prompted her to resign.
Posted by ralan40 at 09:59 AM : May 29, 2007
GO USA.
I bet your from texas or some other backwards state. How does something get "drug" on? I hope you have not bred. The gene pool is polluted enough.
Her image may be held up next to the student in Tiananmen Square, standing in front of a line of tanks.
Cindy shows how divided this great nation has become with Bu$h at the tiller. What does NOT show readily is that most of the nation stands firmly in opposition of George Bu$h.
At least eight more families whose lives will never be the same.
All for a war against the wrong country.
All for a war that didn't need to happen.
And the neo-con cowards who never served a day in the military just sit and gloat.
What is wrong with politics today is not just the Republicans and Democrats, the very problem itself lies with us. We hate and hate until we forget how to love. Where is all of this anger when it needs to be present the most: in the face of the idiocy of our unprovoked attack on Iraq and ineptitude in the prosecution of an unnecessary war?
Meanwhile Afghanistan is worse than ever and Osama and his Saudi supporters watch us all and laugh.
One day, though I fear it be a thousand years from now, we will realize that we are all ONE, and that our fortunes rise and fall together.
Neither do you. If you feel that people should just "shut up" rather than express their constitutional right of of free speech, maybe you should move to a country more in tune with your political perspective, like North Korea or China. They love the "just shut up and do as we say" types over there.
ultimate for her country; her son. Whatever anyone thinks of her, agrees or disagrees, let it go.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 10:19 AM : May 29, 2007
her RIGHT to tear down her own country was certainly protected.
I do not necessarily agree with Sheehan's politics or beliefs ..But having helped raise 7 children in my family ( I'm the oldest ) ; I can certainly get a remote idea of how horrible it would be to lose any 1 of them ..A parents grief is among the worse kind . Its basic simple empathy. Having said that though - if one of them were to join the military and be called to serve and die in battle ; the emotional angst that would befall me would be horriffic , but I could at least take some peace of mind knowing that they passed doing what they had wanted to do or ,answered the call of duty . Like I had said , I do not condone her publicly ( which is her legal right BTW - & all of ours too ) to speak out against the government during time of war ..but has anyone considered this from a basic
distraught parents point of view ?? Just throwing that thought out there . Thank U .
" May Light guide Us all in the Dark Places where we must sometimes Travel "
America needs many more like her.
It is the imbicile Bush who has the blood of all our brave men and women along with tens of thousands innocent Iraqis on his hands.
We were lied to.
The neo-cons want to spread U.S. will through might. Don't let anybody fool you. America went into Iraq purely for self gain.
These brave soldiers did not have to die.
Dingdong! The witch is dead!
To all our Brothers for their service to God and Country. Freedom is not Free.
And I am completely unable to see what is "extreme" about a mother protesting a war which she believes to be wrong and which killed her child. What could be more natural?
There is nothing fascist in her response. She hasn't "dispensed with" anyone. She clearly states that she thinks blind party loyalty is a bad idea, and she's right.
She's right about this too:
"Casey did indeed die for nothing ... killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think."
Every casualty in this horrendous, lying treachery of a war is a murder on the hands of the Bush administration. They are slaughtering innocents to make money, and are utterly worthless and despicable.
Posted by jmbridges2 at 10:45 AM : May 29, 2007
+ report abuse"
Dear Idiot,
How is she not "supporting the troops" by protesting the war? And since her son was a soldier, I highly doubt she would spit on one.
Supporting the troops and supporting the war are not the same thing. Clearer-minded people than you realize that the best way to support the troops is to get them out of where they are being uselessly murdered by the Bush administration.
The job of our troops is to defend out country, not to act as hired mercenaries to keep the middle east unstable so that an endless war can ensue which will further enrich the oil companies and Bush's fat cat contractor friends.
People like you don't get it. About the only useful support you could give the troops would be as a jockstrap. And that would be appropriate, as you're already damned near an a$$hole.
Posted by conplan6022
What an idiot. We are fighting terrorists in Iraq only because we invaded a soverign state in their own back yard and challenged them to a fight. Tools? Who are the real tools... Why do you support the war in Iraq? First because they had WMD's, but then they didn't; then they were tied to 9-11, then they weren't; then it was to fight Al Queda, then the CIA revealed that there were no Al Queda cells in Iraq prior to invasion; then it was to spread Democracy, but the Iraqi people see us as occupiers and want us out. The war has galvanized muslim extremists, wasted billions that could have been spent on real homeland security and become a "cause celeb" for recruiting terrorists, thus increased the threat worldwide... Who for Pete's sake are the real "tools?" ...Those who question the widom of invading a nation forno better reason than we don't like it's leader or those who assume a just cause, one that changes regularly, and blindly cheers for war?
Amazing how much more like Rush Limbaugh you sound every day, Mudrose.
This woman wasn't a tool for anyone, she tried standing up for needless death. She tried writing her congressmen, she tried the protests and the joining of peace organizations and the appealing to the NON-GOP'rs to get her point across about needless death. These courses of action are just about the only course of action left to the average citizen.
It didn't work. She is a lesson, mudrose, to how much power you, YOU, have as a single citizen on this ship bound for Bush hell. You don't ever try to change anything either, mudrose. For those who don't agree with you will treat you with the same contempt and scorn as you now dish out. You had better always toe the line and not ever rock the boat.
Cindy has taught us what happens to people who don't toe the party line.
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