Comment about Cindy Sheehan

Here is Jim's comment:

She never said America wasn't worth dying for.

She said IRAQ wasn't worth dying for. And it isn't.

Freedom is not a gift to be given, but a prize to be won through the blood and struggle of a people that hunger for it. Casey and the other soldiers have died to help create what will end up being another radical islamist (sic) state.

Not the way we should spend the lives of our sons and daughters.

Jim S.Veteran of GWI, voted for the first Bush. Amazed by the ineptitude of the current Bush.

--Posted by Jim S. to My Little Corner of the World at 9/15/2005 04:09:53 PM

Sorry, Jim, you're wrong. I googled "Cindy Sheehan, worth dying for" and found many links to the SF rally where she made these remarks. Here are her own words:

"I take responsibility partly for my son’s death, too. I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people, like my sister over here says, since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bullshit to my son and my son enlisted. I’m going all over the country telling moms: “This country is not worth dying for. If we’re attacked, we would all go out. We’d all take whatever we had. I’d take my rolling pin and I’d beat the attackers over the head with it. But we were not attacked by Iraq. {applause} We might not even have been attacked by Osama bin Laden if {applause}. 9/11 was their Pearl Harbor to get their neo-con agenda through and, if I would have known that before my son was killed, I would have taken him to Canada. I would never have let him go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have. The people are good, the system is morally repugnant."

Quote from Cindy Sheehan in SF at anti-war rally - April 27th, 2005 (bold emphasis mine)

You may believe that Cindy meant Iraq, but that is not the way I read it. If Cindy meant any country other than the US, she didn't phrase her statement well. She spoke of her public school education, then went on to say that America has been killing people since we first stepped on this continent, that we are responsible for death and destruction. That she passed this "bullshit" on to her son and he enlisted. She stated that she is going all over the country telling moms that "this country isn't worth dying for." She then goes on to speak of Iraq. If she meant Iraq, she should have been clearer.

I put negative things in a place all their own and leave them there. I don't want negativity around me. That's where I put all things Cindy. So, if Cindy later restated or clarified her words, I didn't see it. I don't go looking for clarification of statements. If I happen to find that Cindy corrected or clarified her statements, then fine. But I don't go looking for anything having to do with Cindy Sheehan. I consider her to be a grieving mother who has been manipulated by people with their own agenda and who has become a puppet of those people.

You are right that Iraq is not worth dying for. I believe,however, that the people of Iraq deserve to be free. Saddam wasn't going to allow that to happen. Whether we went in for "weapons of mass destruction", to free Iraq, or for other reasons, I don't know. But, the fact remains that we are there and if we pull out now, Casey's death, and the deaths of all the others will have been in vain. That is not acceptable to me. The very fact that American lives have been given to free Iraq means that we must continue on until the Iraqi people are able to defend their own country. When that time comes, then it's time for us to leave.

Otherwise, I agree with nearly everything you said. We will have do agree to disagree as to whether GWB is inept or not. I don't agree with everything he has said or done, but I believe that he is far from inept.

And Jim, thank you for your service to America.