How Do We Honor Our Fallen Troops in a Wrongful War?
By Paul Rockwell
t r u t h o u t | Book Review
Friday 25 November 2005
A review of Cindy Sheehan's uplifting and soulful book.
The agony of war can transform any human being.
In 1914, at the outset of World War I, Rudyard Kipling, the bellicose poet of the British empire who coined the infamous phrase "white man's burden," urged his own son to join the British military. One week after his son enlisted, he was dead. Overwhelmed with grief, Kipling wrote two "Epitaphs for War." In the first, dead soldiers speak:
If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied.
In the second, "The Dead Statesman," a statesman speaks:
And now all my lies are proved untrue.
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young.
There are many kinds of betrayal in human affairs - forgery, embezzlement, adultery, murder. But in the affairs of state, there is no greater disloyalty, no greater act of betrayal, than to send young men and women to their deaths on the basis of fraud.
To lie is to murder.
That is the theme of Cindy Sheehan's defiant, witty, compassionate, and deeply patriotic first book, Not One More Mother's Son. What begins in grief over the loss of her son Casey on April 4, 2004, ends in hope at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, in August 2005. Action overcomes grief. Direct action empowers.
While she confronts the enormity of suffering caused by lies of state, she does not devote a lot of space to proving that Bush manufactured the case for war. She relies on the long trail of evidence - the early vows of Bush to "take down Saddam;" the revelations of Paul O'Neill, Joseph Wilson, Richard Clark and other whistle blowers; the report of Representative Henry Waxmen on administration statements known to be false at the time they were made; andof course, the Downing Street memo. All evidence that is already available.
Who Murdered Casey?
Not One More Mother's Child is primarily about a mother's love of her child and the enormity of the lies that strangled his life.
American readers know very little about Casey Sheehan from the news. Cindy's book gives us an opportunity to meet her son as she knew him. Not a day passes when she does not remember Casey's idiosyncrasies, those special "little things," like the toddler's remark: "I wuv you, Mom."
"Casey was a gentle, kind, loving person. He never even got into a fist fight his whole life." He was an Eagle Scout, an altar boy, and he joined the army in the hope of becoming a Chaplain's assistant. When he got to Iraq, the definition of the "enemy" kept expanding. He was confused by the changing mission and was never quite sure why he was ordered to fight.
Army Specialist Casey Sheehan died in an ambush in Sadyr City, April 4, 2004. Bill Mitchell, Cindy's comrade in grief, also lost his son Michael in the same calamity. The Iraqi people are patriotic and proud. It was a huge blunder when US commanders closed down the Shiite newspaper. Rebellions erupted throughout the city. Shiite youth, many no older than Michael and Casey, set up roadblocks. They placed washing machines, refrigerators and burning tires in the streets. American soldiers were trapped by an ill-trained militia, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Who, then, killed Casey? His mother's answer is unflinching. Casey was murdered by President Bush. American soldiers are victims of their own government. "Bush," she explains, "put our kids in another person's country, and Casey was killed by insurgents. He wasn't killed by terrorists. He was killed by Shiite militia who wanted him out of the country, after Casey had been told he would be welcomed with chocolate and flowers as a liberator. The Iraqi people saw it differently. They saw him as an occupier."
Bill Mitchell agrees with Cindy. "My son was killed by Saddam's enemies. We have created enemies because of our actions. Iraqis are responding to what the US has done, and we just continue to fight anyone who gets in the way."
What makes Cindy's book so refreshing is her ability to learnfrom pain, to rise above her own personal tragedy. She does not express any animosity toward the Iraqis. Her restraint is no small achievement in a wealthy country consumed by nationalism, where it is easier to hate than to understand.
A set of democratic precepts - that we are all God's children; that the insurgents are defending their own homes, streets, and mosques from outside invaders; that Iraqis have as much right to self-determination, the right to be left alone by outside powers, as the American people - and basic common sense underlie her speeches, letters, and her appeals to the conscience of America.
Her book advances the gutsy argument that first appeared in a pamphlet by the US Army veteran Sam Goff: "To preserve your own humanity, you must recognize the humanity of the people whose nation you now occupy, and know that both you and they are victims of the filthy rich bastards who are calling the shots."
How to Honor the Fallen
More than any other contemporary writer and activist, Cindy Sheehan has found a way to honor American troops while repudiating the war in which they are trapped.
She exposes one of the most overlooked and ugly features of wartime propaganda: the political exploitation of human grief, the perverted use of the dead to make war on the living.
In the early phase of the occupation, Bush hardly acknowledged the death toll in Iraq (and he never mentions the magnitude of Iraqi suffering). Now Bush is becoming desperate to find new excuses to prolong the war. He transforms memorials into platforms for the occupation, and his condolences are laced with political aims of empire and war.
In a series of speeches, Bush stated: "We owe the troops something. We will finish the task for which they gave their lives. We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." For Cindy, this attempt to link the honor of Casey to the leveling of cities, the use of cluster bombs that maim Iraqi children, the raiding of Iraq homes, the infamy of Abu Ghraib, the senseless deaths of more American youth, is outrageous.
"How does Bush honor soldiers by killing more of their buddies?" Cindy asks. "I know my son better than anyone on earth, and I know he is appalled by the continued carnage in his name. As amother, why would I want any other mother - American or Iraqi - to go through the same pain that I am suffering?"
With a directness characteristic of all her writing, she says: "I demand that you, Mr. Bush, stop using my son's name and my family's sacrifices to continue your illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq."
Nor is Cindy alone in addressing what Chris Hedges calls military "necrophilia." "All wars feed on martyrs," writes Hedges. "The mention of the dead instantly shuts down all arguments for compromise or tolerance. It is the dead who rule. They speak from beyond the grave urging the nation onward to revenge. The cause, sanctified by the dead, cannot be questioned without dishonoring those who gave their lives."
Military invocations of death often resemble those ancient rituals in which tribal leaders required human sacrifice to appease the gods of war. Bush, however, is a sophisticated barbarian. He knows that, without identification with our troops, his morally indefensible war would be repudiated by the American people. It is America's emotional attachment to their troops, who are prepared to risk their lives when their country is under a real attack, that has - so far - saved Bush from self-destruction. And that is why, of course, he delivers so many speeches against the backdrop of the troops.
Would our fallen troops want their own comrades to meet untimely deaths? Would they invite us to take more revenge on Iraqis who possess no weapons of mass destruction? If they could speak to us from beyond, would they not cry out, as did the dead soldiers in Kipling's epitaph: "If any question why we died, tell them because our fathers lied"?
Such questions answer themselves. But Cindy addresses another kind of question, a spiritual enigma that is not easy to solve. Did our soldiers die in vain? Was it all for nothing? How do grieving families find peace if they face the truth about war?
It is the message of Cindy's book, I believe, so simple and so profound, that only the truth can heal. Only the truth can liberate the memory of the fallen. Our soldiers deserve a reckoning. And we must honor them in a way that affirms the sacredness of life.
We cannot bring back the dead. But we can end the war and hold our leaders accountable for their crimes. We can turn Casey's sacrifice into a message for peace. Then even the dead, through Cindy's inspiration, can save future generations from the scourge of war. Then - perhaps only then - our fallen comrades can rest in peace.
Paul Rockwell is a columnist for In Motion Magazine.
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"Sheehan's Stand" Monument Unveiled in Crawford
The Associated Press
Friday 25 November 2005
Bill Mitchell, Cindy Sheehan, Dee Dee Miller, and Juan Torres take part in a commemoration of a monument bearing the words "Sheehan's Stand." The names of two dozen soldiers whose families were part of the vigil are engraved on the back. All four lost love ones in Iraq.
(Photo: Rebecca MacNeice)
Crawford, Texas - Anti-war demonstrators, back in Crawford to protest during President Bush's holiday vacation, unveiled a stone monument Friday with the words "Sheehan's Stand" in honor of the woman who inspired their efforts.
Cindy Sheehan, who staged a 26-day protest outside Bush's ranch in August, cried when she saw the 2-foot-high sandstone marker.
On the other side of the rectangular slab is the word "Why!" and names of more than two dozen soldiers whose families were part of the vigil. The name of Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, is among them.
"Nobody knew what was going to happen, and we made up Camp Casey as we went along, and it grew and grew and grew," said Sheehan, of Berkeley, Calif. "We're here to say that the killing has to stop, that we're not going to justify any more killing on our losses."
The artist who carved the 1,200-pound monument, Ron Teska of Wind Ridge, Pa., drove to Crawford the last week of the protest with the stone slab in the back of his pickup. He spent about 45 hours carving it.
The marker was placed at the Crawford Peace House, which opened downtown a month after the war began in March 2003. An anti-war rally was planned for Saturday and an interfaith service Sunday.
Several Bush supporters also gathered in Crawford on Friday with a sign reading: "The price of freedom is not free." Hundreds were expected to attend a pro-Bush rally Saturday.
"I disagree with her claims that the president is a murderer and a liar," said James Vergauwen of Windthorst. "When you're at war, you need to be at war as a whole country and not as a divided country."
Bush Supporters, Opponents Gather in Texas
By Angela K. Brown
The Associated Press
Saturday 26 November 2005
Crawford, Texas - Three months after the mother of a fallen soldier led a 26-day anti-war vigil near President Bush's ranch, peace activists and Bush supporters converged again Saturday for dueling rallies.
Cindy Sheehan, whose 24-year-old Casey died in Iraq, called for anti-war activists to return to Crawford this week as Bush celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. The war opponents' camp is at the same 1-acre private lot that a landowner let them use in August when Sheehan's original campsite became too crowded.
The first demonstration attracted thousands from around the country and made the woman from Berkeley, Calif., a national figure.
"Nobody knew what was going to happen, and we made up Camp Casey as we went along, and it grew and grew and grew," said Sheehan. "But we're here to say that the killing has to stop, that we're not going to justify any more killing on our losses. And we're not going away."
Meanwhile, father Gary Qualls, who lost his Marine son Louis in Iraq last year, was among hundreds of Bush supporters who wanted to counter anti-war demonstrators with their own demonstration. Qualls, who also led a pro-Bush rally in August, said the anti-war demonstration is disrespectful to soldiers and hurtful to troop morale.
"Our sons and daughters have given the ultimate sacrifice, and they deserve nothing less than pure honor and pure respect," Qualls said.
On Friday, activists unveiled a stone monument bearing the words "Sheehan's Stand." The names of two dozen soldiers whose families were part of the vigil are engraved on the back. The monument stands at the Crawford Peace House, which opened downtown a month after the war began in March 2003.
Peace activists Cindy Sheehan, from left, her sister Dede Miller and Juan Torres comfort each other during the dedication ceremony for the Camp Casey Memorial Garden at the Crawford Peace House, Friday, Nov. 25, 2005, in Crawford, Texas. Sheehan and her supporter have resumed their war protest near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Peace activists Bill Mitchell, from left, Dede Miller, Juan Torres and Cindy Sheehan look a carved stone at the newly dedicated Camp Casey Memorial Garden at the Crawford Peace House, Friday, Nov. 25, 2005, in Crawford, Texas. Sheehan and her supporter have resumed their war protest near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan walks out of the Crawford Peace House before an event near President Bush's ranch on Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 in Crawford, Texas. A stone was dedicated to fallen soldiers at the Crawford Peace House. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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TVNL Editor's Comments: Look around you right now. Count the people in your home; your children, siblings, parents, pets, whom ever happen to be at your home at any given time. Add your neighbors on either side of where you are. Now imagine that you come home to find them all dead because a car bomb exploded in front of your home. How would you feel?
Now imagine that the only reason that someone was able to drive that car bomb up to your home and obliterate your family in the blink of an eye, is because some Governor from another state thought your mayor was a bastard, so they sent their National Guard in to depose your mayor. In the process they also fired all the police and let everyone out of jail. How would you feel?
How would you feel towards the Governor who unleashed this horror unto your family? How would you feel towards the people who supported the actions that led to the obliteration of your family? How would you feel after you lose everyone and everything that is dear to you because people in a state on the other side of the nation poked their nose into your citys business? How would you respond? How would you feel?
I'll tell you how you would feel, you would feel like an Iraqi. Now perhaps you will better understand how & why they respond to thePNAC invasion of their nation, no matter what that response may be. Think about it! Jesse, Editor, TvNewsLIES.org
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