COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Mom Protesting Iraq War Meets Bush Aides
DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Aug 6, 2005
The
angry mother of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President
Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has
conducted the war in Iraq.
Supported by more than 50 demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her
son!" Cindy Sheehan told reporters: "I want to ask the president, 'Why
did you kill my son? What did my son die for?'" Sheehan, 48, didn't get
to see Bush, but did talk about 45 minutes with national security
adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin,
who went out to hear her concerns.
Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she
planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until
she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Sadr City,
Iraq, on April 4, 2004. He was an Army specialist, a Humvee mechanic.
"They (the advisers) said we are in Iraq because they believed Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that the world's a better
place with Saddam gone and that we're making the world a safer place
with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone
interview after the meeting.
"They were very respectful. They were nice men. I told them Iraq was
not a threat to the United States and that now people are dead for
nothing. I told them I wouldn't leave until I talked to George Bush."
She said Hagin told her, "I want to assure you that he (Bush) really does care."
"And I said if he does care, why doesn't he come out and talk to me."
Sheehan arrived in Crawford aboard a bus painted red, white and blue
and emblazoned with the words, "Impeachment Tour." Sheehan, from
Vacaville, Calif., had been attending a Veterans for Peace convention
in Dallas.
The bus, trailed by about 20 cars of protesters and reporters, drove at
about 15 mph toward Bush's ranch. After several miles, they parked the
vehicles and began to march, in stifling heat, farther down the narrow
country road.
Flanked by miles of pasture, Sheehan spoke with reporters while
clutching two photographs, one of her son in uniform, and the other, a
baby picture, when he was seven months old.
She said she decided to come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said
that fallen U.S. troops had died for a noble cause and that the mission
must be completed.
"I want to ask the president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son
die for?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Last week, you
said my son died for a noble cause' and I want to ask him what that
noble cause is?"
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said response that Bush also wants the troops to return home safely.
"Many of the hundreds of families the president has met with know their
loved one died for a noble cause and that the best way to honor their
sacrifice is to complete the mission," Duffy said.
"It is a message the president has heard time and again from those he
has met with and comforted. Like all Americans, he wants the troops
home as soon as possible."
The group marched about a half-mile before local law enforcement
officials stopped them at a bend in the road, still four to five miles
from the ranch's entrance. Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County
Sheriff's Office said the group was stopped because some marchers
ignored instructions to walk in the ditch beside the road, not on the
road.
"If they won't cooperate, we won't," Vanek said.
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