Today's DFP: 3 Cindy pieces (1 AP article & 2 opposing op-eds)

[Bozita]

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/peacemom11e_20050811.htm

IRAQ WAR PROTEST: One mother's lonesome vigil


She waits for answers near Bush's ranch

August 11, 2005


BY ANGELA K. BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS



CRAWFORD, Texas -- The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who started a quiet roadside peace vigil near President George W. Bush's ranch last weekend is drawing supporters from across the nation.


At her makeshift camp in muddy ditches off the two-lane, winding road leading to Bush's ranch, Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., has spent the past several days talking to reporters, hugging fellow protesters and taking brief breaks to share snacks brought by supporters.


On Saturday, two high-level Bush administration officials -- the national security adviser and deputy White House chief of staff -- met with Sheehan for about 20 minutes. She called the discussion "pointless" and remains steadfast about talking to the president.


Casey Sheehan, 24, was killed in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on April 4, 2004, just five days after he arrived.

more...


The following appears in print but not online.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/09/mr_bush_lets_talk/

JOAN VENNOCHI
Mr. Bush, let's talk

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist  |  August 9, 2005

AMERICA HAS a president, not a king. But just like royalty, the nation's commander in chief can keep his distance from the common man or woman.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a son who died in Iraq, is camped out in Crawford, Texas, trying to get a face-to-face meeting with the vacationing George W. Bush. She wants to tell the president that he should pull all American troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, was killed at age 24 in the Sadr City section of Baghdad on April 4, 2004.

The police blocked her a few miles from the Bush ranch. On Saturday, two Bush administration officials were dispatched to speak to her. But Sheehan says she will not leave until she sees the president. ''I plan on staying here the entire month of August or until he comes out to talk to me," she told USA Today.

Democracy in America begins with a very intimate connection between the people and those who seek to represent them. In the initial quest for votes, those running for elective office, including the presidency, will talk and meet with virtually anyone. There is no coffee hour too small to attend nor person too humble to approach. Once the vote-seeker wins office, it's a different story. The walls go up. The doors lock. The distance grows.

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And then there's this waste of paper and ink:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/09/EDGRQE3TRI1.DTL&type=printable

War reports -- we'd be Brits
- Debra J. Saunders
Tuesday, August 9, 2005


THE HEADLINES from Iraq couldn't be worse -- they announce suicide bombings, American casualties and roadblocks to Iraqi self-governance. This week, the mother of slain Vacaville soldier Casey Sheehan is camping out at the gate to President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch. She told reporters she wants to ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" Cindy Sheehan wants Bush to send U.S. troops home.

If the American Revolution were fought amidst all this nay-saying, America would be a British colony today. Don't take my word for it. "1776" author David McCullough recently told CNBC's Tim Russert that if the Revolutionary War had been covered by today's media, "and the country had seen how horrible the conditions were, how badly things were being run by the officers and what a very serious soup we were in, I think that would have been it, too."

Amid the bad news, I talked to Maj. John Busterud, a Bay Area lawyer and Army reservist with the 351st Civil Affairs Command of the U.S. Army, who is serving in Iraq. Busterud phoned to talk about the positive things he sees "every day in the work we're doing here." It is his job to work with Iraqi officials to make Iraqi government work. He sees that the ability of Iraqis "to govern themselves is coming along nicely. But it's not the sort of thing that makes the evening news at night."

Americans read about the suicide bombings to discourage citizens from working for the new Iraqi government. Busterud sees Iraqis lining up to become police. More Iraqi forces are "up and operating on their own." And: "This doesn't appear in the media much, but we are definitely taking the fight to the enemy."

more if you can stand it ...