Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out

The Sheehanapalooza is finally coming to an end, though not without going out in a blaze of glory on a day that should be reserved for honoring those who made the supreme sacrifice for defending our nation; Memorial Day.

I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an "attention whore" then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a "grateful" country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because 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.

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.

Cindy Sheehan, who turned into a cause celebre for the anti-war left has finally had it with the rest of the anti-war movement and is going home.

She's admitting quite a bit in this posting; that she sees just how bass-ackward the anti-war left is and how out of tune it is with the rest of the nation. It simply cannot generate any traction with most Americans - regardless of the political affiliation. As the most recent Iraq vote shows, Congress overwhelmingly supported the funding of the troops and could not muster the votes to cut off funding. The far left could not get the rest of the country to bend to its will, and Sheehan may have finally realized this.

Good.

The media and anti-war movement used and abused this woman's grieving over the loss of her son Casey who died in Iraq. Casey believed in the war, while his mom didn't. The media ascribed upon her a moral authority that she neither deserved nor should have ever attained simply because her son was killed in Iraq. Over three thousand families are grieving for the deaths of their loved ones in Iraq, and yet Sheehan became the face of that group, despite the fact that quite a few families supported what their loved ones died doing.

She used her son's name to rise to prominence aided and abetted by a media that used her as a sledgehammer against the Administration. Her sorrow was turned into a show of anti-war sentiment; complete with moping and preening for the cameras that often outnumbered the number of supporters at her gatherings.

UPDATE:
Don Surber wrote:

Goodbye, Mrs. Sheehan. Enjoy whatever planet you land on. Sorry that those of us with ideas of our own have a different opinion.

That was always part of the problem. She always thought that those who disagreed with her were crazy for believing in the hope that Iraqis could benefit from having a dictator toppled who thought nothing of throwing political prisoners into plastic shredders or littering the landscape with mass graves. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died at the hands of Saddam and his minions. The fighting in Iraq today continues between Ba'athists and the Iraqi government along with various factions - Sunni and Shi'ite, and al Qaeda is trying to stir up sectarian conflict. All that violence pales in comparison with Saddam's legacy.

Yet, Sheehan's rhetoric put the US actions on a level with that of Nazi Germany and ascribed to the Bush Administration the kinds of actions that were repeatedly conducted by Saddam and the insurgency.

UPDATE:
Hold the phone. Via Sister Toldjah, there is going to be an anti-war/anti-Bush demonstration in Charlotte, North Carolina and one of the featured speakers is none other than Cindy Sheehan:

Join us in Charlotte, NC for a public discussion about the impeachment of President George Bush & Vice President Dick Cheney. We are holding this event in Rep. Mel Watt's district, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and inviting him to partcipate.

Guest speakers & participants include: Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families For Peace David Swanson, AfterDowningStreet.org, Ann Wright, Ret. US Army Col & former career diplomat Dr. Dahlia Wasfi

Now, it's possible that they didn't get the memo and Sheehan will not appear, but as of this writing, she's still on the list.

UPDATE:
Rick Moran has a thoughtful post deconstructing Sheehan's exodus from the anti-war movement and from the Democrat party, whose leadership grew uneasy with her cozy relationship with Hugo Chavez, Castro and other socialists around the world. Tammy Bruce also weighs in.

UPDATE:
Others blogging Sheehan's departure from the anti-war scene (or so it seems): AJ Strata, Blue Crab Boulevard, and Michael van der Galien.

UPDATE:
She's not retiring. She's just taking a break, or so says her spokesman:

Under attack from all sides, Sheehan needed a break, Lessin said. “It’s difficult day after day after day to make speech after speech, exposing your pain and never letting it heal.”

Burns, though, said the announcement should be looked at less as a permanent retirement and more as time off.

“Even though Cindy is, quote-unquote, retiring from the movement, she’s really just taking more of a break,” said Burns. “She’s not going away. Stay tuned."