Cindy Sheehan throws in the towel

On August 24, 1970 Karleton Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, Leo Burt and David Fine bombed Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus as a protest against the Vietnam War. The bombing, set off at 3:42AM, was intended to destroy the Army Math Research Center housed on the 2nd-4th floors of the building. It caused massive destruction to other parts of the building as well -- and resulted in the death of the researcher Robert Fassnacht. It also injured four others and caused significant destruction to the physics department and its experiments. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department were involved with or employed by the Army Math Research Center.

Those guys took their anti-war protest too far. Nothing Cindy Sheehan did even came close.

I fail to understand the criticism of her non-violent efforts.

 

How much of the popular impression of her was molded by Karl Rove, right wing talk radio or somebody like that?

 

That's the question, sp.

 

Honestly? Not much, I think, not that he would have minded doing that. But it allowed the Rush Limbaughs of the world to make her the face of the anti-war movement, and I think that hurt the credibility of those who agreed with her basic views.

 

I admire her courage. Life would have been a lot easier for her if she were on the other side of this issue, not that life is ever easy for anyone in her situation. She would have been ridiculed a lot less if she just supported the war.

 

I feel terrible about her loss. Not only of her son's life, but her own.

 

I simply don't think any of us assholes can pass judgement on her until we have suffered the most incongruent of losses, a parent's loss of a child.

That a brainless, homicidal miscreant sent him to his death must gall her as much as his death decimated her.

I have never felt anything other than sympathy for her. She never hurt anyone.

But she is yet another person in this country who has gone after Bush who has had the Rove machine make HER look crazy.

That there isn't a million-man march on 1600 Pennsylvania, complete with pitchforks and stakes and bails of hay, aimed at extirpating that prick, is incredible to me.

The utter embarrassment that I feel knowing that 3 people out of 10 still approve of this idiot, is deep and dark.

 

I think she did as much as anyone to help turn the country around on this seemingly endless stupidity.
I don't think you do that politely -- not with this crew.

 

I admire her efforts and respect her sacrifice.

She lost me when she appeared with Hugo Chavez.

 

I think Sheehan deserves some credit for getting the ball rolling on the anti-war sentiment.

In August 2005, there wasn't a lot of criticism of the Bush administration from the mainstream. Then she set up Camp Casey and with little else going on at the time, she got a lot — a LOT — of publicity. I think she struck a chord with a lot of people at the time.

With a big nudge from Hurricane Katrina at the end of the month, that started the GOP house of cards tumbling. I think with Sheehan, the mainstream media finally got the courage to begin reporting on news unfavorable to the Bushies. Katrina gave it a push, and Scooter Libby, DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Abramoff, et al. turned it into a GOP feeding frenzy.

 

No, it's not true.
It makes for a good bumper sticker, but it isn't true. Not remotely.

 

And if her son had lived and came home a decorated war hero she'd be running around the country protesting the protestors and her personal loss made her way too emotionally involved and that's why her credibility was suspect.