positioning

You have probably heard about Cindy Sheehan, who has been protesting outside President Bush’s Texas home following the death of her son, Casey, who was serving in Iraq. Casey was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004. But it wasn’t simply the loss of her son that prompted activism from this previously very normal and quiet woman — her decision to take action sprang from a meeting she had with the President in the months following her son’s death.

While she found him to be a “man of faith,” she also said later that he seemed “totally disconnected from humanity and reality.” And when she later heard him speak of soldiers’ deaths as “noble,” Sheehan felt she had to do something.
[source: CNN.com: “Protesting mom’s normal life ended with son’s death,” 14 August 2005]

I was particularly frustrated when reading this account of Sheehan’s meeting with Bush in June 2004 — a meeting in which Bush is described as behaving as if “it was a party.”

And so Sheehan has been camped outside the Bush home in Crawford, Texas, since Saturday, August 6.

“My whole family would rather I was home more than gone,” [Sheehan] said. “Some people have tried to discourage me from doing what I’m doing, but I can’t be discouraged, I can’t be stopped because I know what I’m doing is so important. It’s a matter of life or death.”
[ibid]

She couldn’t be more right.

Also in the news in the past few days has been the release of material related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — specifically recordings of firefighter’s radio communications from September 11 as well as transcriptions of interviews with rescue workers and others that were conducted in the days and weeks following.

Should the timing of this release come as any surprise?

Bush’s approval rating for his personal vendetta in Iraq is abysmally low, and he now has people running the gamut from hardcore protesters to more unlikely activists, such as Cinday Sheehan, openly protesting his actions.

Not that I seek to devalue these recordings and transcripts in any way — nor to underplay the experiences and ordeals they reveal — but it seems awfully convenient to release these now, as a “reminder to the American people of what we’re fighting for” to boost support for the war in Iraq, and to once again play upon the mass-fed, manipulated conclusion that Saddam Hussein was behind those terrorist attacks in September 2001.

Or maybe it’s just me.

To support Cindy Sheehan in her continued peaceful protest, please consider attending or hosting a vigil for Cindy on Wednesday, August 17th.