Cindy Sheehan: "Peace" mom

There has been a whole heck of a lot in the news lately regarding Cindy Sheehan who lost her 24 year old son in Iraq. She has become the face of the peace movement. I use peace figuratively because the type of peace she and her followers espouse I have already discussed throughout this blog.

Losing someone is tragic and I can speak this for personal experience. I have lost many people in my life and a few of them were in accidents that were not their fault. Cindy's son died because of insurgents in Iraq. Terrorists.

Cindy was interviewed by CBS News’ Mark Knoller on August 6, 2005. In this interview (that has never made it to the main stream media, no surprise, she makes the following statements to questions Mr. Knoller asked her:

1. "Iraq was not a terrorist state."
2. "But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open. Freedom Fighters from other countries are going in."
3. "people who never thought of being car bombers, suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country."

Sadly, Ms. Sheehan is very much mistaken and has allowed the emotion of her loss to cloud her logic. Let's look at the truth.

1. Was Iraq a State sponsor of terror? On July 22, 2002 Palestinian Kefauah Eshatah had a picture taken of her by REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah. Kefauah was posed in front of a picture of her son who killed himself in a suicide bombing. Kefauah is pictured holding up a compensation check for $10,000 which she received from the pro-Iraqi faction ALF (Arab Liberation Front). Saddam Hussein has given millions to families who have lost men fighting Israel. Pro-Iraqi Palestinian officials say Iraq has paid at least $5 million to Gaza families.

2. We have decimated the country? No, actually aside from the suicide and car bombing terrorists the country would be in pretty good shape.

3. The borders are open: Cindy, Cindy, Cindy... the borders were open long before the United States took out Saddam. That region of the world has always been pourous and will probably always be relatively pourous.

4. "Freedom Fighters from other countries are going in." So... the insurgents and terrorists are "freedom fighters"? What was your son who died for what he believed in? I want to have sympathy for this woman but I also want her to be logical. These people who are going to Iraq to fight are not Freedom fighters. At least not in the definition most people use. They want freedom... to go back to Saddam era politics or create a Fundamentalist Islamic State that does not recognize basic human rights.

5. "people who never thought of being car bombers, suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country." Cindy, there is no shortage of Islamic Fundamentalists and the presence of the United States has done very little to change this. The only thing that is true is that Iraq has become the hub for terrorist acts and I would much prefer that they happen in Iraq than in your home state. Let's not forget that the United States was not in Afghanistan in 2000 or 2001, but the Taliban support for Osama Bin Laden's network had no problem perpetrating 9-11. For your logic to be even remotely feasable the real terrorists should have come with the political support of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait where the United States has bases.

Now, before someone points out and says, "most of the terrorists were Saudi." Yes, that is true... and they followed Osama who was kicked out of Saudi Arabia.

Cindy, when you call these people "Freedom Fighters" you empower them with your message. When people by into your illogical conclusions they add more voices to a false justice. Your voice, and those before yours, only add to the enemy and result in more deaths... perhaps even leading to the death of your son. Now you are doing what is going to kill another woman's boy.

What the United States needs to do is maintain its resolve against terrorism and fight it where it spawns, grows, infests and congregates.