Cindy Sheehan

“Peace Mom” Cindy Sheehan to Speak at Central Connecticut State University, November 16, 2009

Her Protests Galvanized National Attention to the Human Cost of the War in Iraq

November 11, 2009 (New Britain, CT)--Cindy Sheehan is an internationally known peace and social justice advocate whose son, Army Specialist Casey A. Sheehan, was killed in action in Sadr City, Baghdad, on April 4, 2004. Sheehan is founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization of Americans who have had loved ones killed in wars. As an act of protest against the war, in August 2005 Cindy took a stand outside of George Bush's home in Crawford, Texas asking what noble cause her son died for; this began the “Camp Casey” peace movement. Sheehan will be at Central Connecticut State University on Monday, November 16, to give two presentations. The events are free and open to the public. Campus map and directions available at www.ccsu.edu/visit. More below the fold.

Barack Obama DOES NOT Speak For Me
By Cindy Sheehan | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

I was facilitating a meeting in Washington, DC this past weekend, and an Iraq “War” veteran claimed that the GI resistance movement ended the Vietnam War. I started to say that I was sure that the GI movement was a part of ending the Vietnam War as was the draft, the student movement, the Congress (that had some influence back then), and I was interrupted by the rep from Veterans for Peace who simply said: “actually it was the Vietnamese people who ended that war.”

That’s the plain truth after millions dead/wounded, the Vietnamese people succeeded in vanquishing the U.S.

Today, I recalled that meeting as a couple of very insidious things crossed my path, or caught my eye.

The first thing was an article in the rag called the Washington Post about the attack at Ft. Hood and the alleged suspect, Nidal Hasan and how there is an increasing pattern of soldiers targeting other soldiers. The WaPo editors filtered the article through the Propaganda Wing of the Pentagon and came up with the title: “Fort Hood attack is 3rd this year by antiwar radicals targeting military on U.S. soil.” I think the message is clear: “anti-war=terrorism.”

Call me cynical, (I haven’t always been this way, but I stood up a new person after I fell on the floor screaming my heart out when I found out that Casey was killed in Iraq), but I feel the next item that I would like to point out on this Friday the 13th, is something the Commander in Chief promised the troops when he stopped in Anchorage, AK to refuel Air Force One on his way to Japan, and something that I think is connected to the increasing war path rhetoric.

He actually told the men and women assembled at Elmendorf Air Force Base that if he decides to “not hesitate…to use force to protect America’s vital interests (not defined in the speech)” then he promised, promised, promised (like he promised to close Gitmo within the year and bring one combat brigade per month home from Iraq) to: Read more.

What: End the Fed Rally

When: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 1-4 PM

Where: Charlotte Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, 530 E Trade St Charlotte, NC 28202

Where Have all the Flowers Gone?
By Cindy Sheehan | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Watching Obama salute a coffin at Dover Air Force Base with all the pomp and circumstance of US Military worship filled me with disgust and sorrow.

Disgust because the White House PR apparatus went into full swing to find a family that would allow their loved ones’ coffin to be photographed in a scene that reminded me of George Bush’s landing on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on May 2, 2003 wearing a pilot’s suit and a codpiece.

Why did Obama do this? To soften the blow, of sending more troops, for a gullible public that wants to believe someone like Obama could give a crap about the cannon fodder he condemns to pointless death?

Being the Commander in Chief of the United States Military has only meant one thing for the past sixty years or so: being the tool of the War Machine. And even though a tool has no say in whether it is used to build or destroy, did Obama have no shame when he went to salute the coffin of a young person that he (the buck stops here) killed? Does he not have the courage to sign the orders to start withdrawing our troops from these wars that were begun by the War Machine when his predecessor was in office, but roll bloodily on while he wears the imperial mantle of carnage? Read more.

This upcoming Sunday (October 25, 2PM Pacific on the website or 3PM Central at 1360am Rational Radio, Dallas, Tx), Professor Noam Chomsky will be on the Soapbox.

This is your chance to ask the author of Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez' favorite book, Hegemony or Survival (I like it too!) the question you've always wanted to ask the good Professor.

Please submit your questions (with your name and city) to: Cindy@CindySheehansSoapbox.com

I will do my best to ask Professor Chomsky as many of your questions as I can! Read more.

Symbolic Actions don't Solve Real Problems
My Speech at anti-war Rally in San Francisco
By Cindy Sheehan | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

It’s nice to see everybody here today as we are about to embark on another symbolic march to nowhere.

How many self-congratulatory miles do you think we’ve marched for peace in the last 45 years? Millions?

How many petitions do you think we’ve signed and delivered? Millions?

How many phone calls have we made to our elected representative? Billions?

How many War Party Politicians like Nancy Pelosi do we continually elect to office? Thousands?

Why do we consistently and constantly perform these symbolic actions, when millions of people are not symbolically dying?

When millions of people are not symbolically losing their homes, their jobs and being poisoned by the War Machine, why are only symbolic actions undertaken?

Trust me, our symbolic actions have absolutely zero affect on real problems.

Have our actions over the years diminished the War Machine by one iota? Hell no, as a matter of fact, The Empire counts on us to keep our actions symbolic, because our symbolic actions actually strengthen The Empire.

Why? Read more.

Capitalism: An Apathy Story
By Cindy Sheehan

This Thursday, in a move that would make Baron von Louis Rothschild blush with shame (or burst with pride), Goldman Sachs will announce that it is more than doubling its bonus pool: from 11 billion in 2007 to 23 billion in 2008.

I always thought the concept of the “Welfare Queen” was eliminated during the Clinton Regime (where his SecTreas was a former chair of G S) however, Goldman Sachs has received billions of dollars in taxpayer welfare and supposedly paid that back, except for the 13 billion that was funneled through AIG to Goldman through loan guarantees.

Well, wouldn’t it be hunky dory if every loan we consumers took out from these banksters came with a guarantee that if we failed, our government would pay our loans off?

What Does Peace Mean?
By Cindy Sheehan

I guess to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee it means presiding over the further destruction of the population of three countries that didn’t harm anyone.

I guess it means voting for every war-funding bill while one is a Senator.

I guess it means continuing the use of the obscene and immoral drones.

I guess it means continuing torture and building larger prisons to pre-emptively and indefinitely detain suspected “terrorists.”

I guess it means using the politics of fear to justify your wars. “Afghanistan is a war of necessity.” “There are still people in the world who want to hurt Americans.”

I guess it means increasing your military budget.

I guess it means paying back your donors on Wall Street and in the insurance companies to profoundly harm people in your own country.

I guess it means hiring hostile people like Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Petraeus.

I guess it means extending the damaging embargo on Cuba and threatening “crippling economic sanctions” for Iran.

I guess since the committee awarded the prize to Jimmy Carter who gave rise to the Taliban and al Qaeda in Iran giving billions to those who fought against the USSR (talk about Blowback), it tells the people of Afghanistan if you are killed, we will give your killer the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jesus Christ, why didn’t they just give it to George Bush?

The US Peace Movement was put on life support with the election of Democrats. I hope now that we have a president who is just a tool of the war machine AND a Nobel Peace Laureate that it hasn’t put the final nail in the coffin of the Peace Movement.

Peace to us means, not just an absence of war but, an absence of preparing for war.

Peace to us means that innocent people won’t suffer for profit.

I guess to the Establishment: War is Peace.

By Cindy Sheehan

"You gotta make me do it."
Barack Obama

I had just walked back into my hotel room yesterday after chaining myself to the White House fence and being arrested, when I saw White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, say that removing troops from Afghanistan was "not an option."

Hundreds of us were out in front of the White House as this nation is heading into the 9th year of what is the longest overt military misadventure, next to Vietnam.

Sixty-one other people were arrested with me. Organizations calling for the end to torture and for single-payer Medicare for all were in attendance, along with Vet groups and other pro-peace organizations and leaders.

September 30, 2009

President Obama,

I know that you are only fulfilling your campaign promises to increase the violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan and I notice that not a significant amount of troops have been withdrawn from Iraq. However, even with your hostile rhetoric and promises to escalate the violence, many people voted for you because they believed you were the peace candidate.

Since the election, you have betrayed the progressive base that gave you victory on many occasions already, but the cause that keeps many of us motivated is the continued carnage in the Middle East. What bothers me even more, especially, is the fact that the so-called anti-war movement has given you a nine-month free pass and thousands of people have died, including hundreds of our own troops.

Since you took office, 125 of our irreplaceable young have been killed in what you called a “dumb war” in Iraq and 223 in what I call the "other dumb war,” Afghanistan. I have been waiting for a mother of one of those needlessly killed troops to demand a meeting with you to ask you: for “What Noble Cause?” her child was sacrificed. Read more.

Combat “Enablers:” PLEASE DON’T GO! Open Letter to the “Troops”
By Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mom | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Dear Combat “Enablers and other Troops,

I read an article in the Army Times recently that said 3000 more troops will be deployed to Afghanistan and 1000 more to Iraq.

“The troops are what the military calls “combat enablers” — noncombat troops who specialize in areas such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; explosives ordnance disposal; medical and mental health; and personnel administration. They will deploy in team-sized elements as opposed to larger units,” according to the article.

This follows close on the heels of Admiral Michael Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) going before the Senate September 15th to ask for more troops and Stanley “the Goon” McChrystal, (death squad leader and commander in Afghanistan) is expected to request more troops soon in his much awaited assessment of the mess, which will be hereafter be called: "assess-mess" to save time.

Since the Democratic Congress has already appropriated an additional 100 billion dollars and , because their leader has called Afghanistan a “war of necessity,” the followers of your Commander in Chief have stood down in the anti-war arena so I can only regretfully and gloomily predict more future disaster and body bags in the Middle East.

As a mother who had a son killed in Iraq, this is my personal message to you: Read more.

Cindy Sheehan (Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox) wrote to update us on the International People's Declaration of Peace (IPDoP):

• This is the final version of IPDoP...the committee sent it out for translation services today!
• We are working on website and an online petition to sign after the translations are complete, it is not ready to be signed yet.
• We are also working on an archival quality hard copy document to be taken all over the world for signatures of leading peace proponents.
• We are also working on accompanying articles for the Declaration.
• We still need commitments for free or very low cost translation services into: French, Japanese, Arabic, Bengali, and Chinese

International People's Declaration of Peace

PREAMBLE

We the undersigned, as responsible citizens of this planet, hereby proclaim the urgent universal need for sustained security through peace, for present and future generations of the human family.

Nothing Short of Peace on Earth
By Cindy Sheehan | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Readers: Can you translate: Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Japanese, or Bengal? Please read on...

At one of my many events in Kentucky this past week at a delightfully named coffee and beer hangout in Louisville, Ray’s Monkey House, a lovely woman named Trudie came up to me with tears in her eyes and she told me: “Cindy, when you were in Crawford that summer, I thought to myself, ‘this is the beginning of the end of war.’ It might take time, and it might not happen in our lifetimes, but what you started to honor your son will end war.”

If only. If only, we the people could finally realize that it is not up to our governments to end war. Our governments and the War Machine are locked in a violently greedy mutual stranglehold and could not care less about our opinions or our children.

In my opinion, our struggles are in vain when we try to organize each other and ourselves to go begging the Robber Class to reform itself. It’s not ever going to happen. Throughout history we have repeatedly and to no avail, begged for our few crumbs of prosperity and peace and look where it has gotten us…in the midst of an economic depression that is further fueled by the blood of our troops and the blood of strangers thousands of miles away.

The Capitalist system of military conquest to perpetuate itself will never go without a fight. So, we need to forget about our governments and their masters, we need to reach out to each other to make firm promises that we will never allow our governments to use us as weapons of mass destruction to kill or oppress each other again.

That is why I am working so hard on the International People’s Declaration of Peace (IPDoP). It proclaims our essential and intrinsic values as human beings and our basic human right to not be subjected to state sanctioned violence. Read more.

9-11 and Oil
By Cindy Sheehan | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Friday was the 8th anniversary since the tragedies of 9-11 and before I go forward, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathies to the families of the people who were killed that day, but to also recognize that everyone in this country has suffered whether they know it or not.

On that sunny and bright morning, 8 years ago, I awoke from my sleep to learn that the first plane had hit the first tower. As the events of the day unfolded, I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that this event would somehow lead to the death of my oldest child Casey, who was in the Army stationed at Ft. Hood, Tx. I went into a tailspin of depression that didn’t break until I fell on the floor screaming after I found out he was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04. I wasn’t depressed anymore I was in a pain-soaked, white-hot rage.

9-11 was, of course, the defining moment of this generation. Of course, whether it was an inside job: evil Dick Cheney planning it between heart attacks in his bunker; to the “official story” (yeah, right!); the attacks were exploited to lead to, among other things: get our country militarily mired into three countries by now; torture; Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and rendition (began under the Clinton admin); USA PATRIOT ACT; military commissions act; lack of personnel and equipment to help the victims of Katrina in her aftermath; crumbling infrastructure here in America; collapsing economy; the FISA Modernization Act, etc, etc.

Keep the Change!
By Cindy Sheehan | CindySheehan'sSoapbox

“If George Bush was/is a war criminal; then Obama is a war criminal. If Obama is not, then Bush is not. We the people cannot have it both ways.” Cindy Sheehan, Martha’s Vineyard
Cindy Sheehan

Through many difficulties we faced on Martha’s Vineyard, (the sad passing of Senator Kennedy, Tropical Storm Danny---and even getting my wallet stolen) last week, a hearty band of about a two dozen of us, from off the island and on, tried our damndest to revive some kind of anti-war sentiment in this nation.

The media wanted to make it a story about the media: about how Crawford was such a big story and how Martha’s Vineyard is not. I don’t think that was the story, though.

Even though, we received endorsements from three of the most effective national anti-war groups; Veterans for Peace, Iraq Vets Against the War and World Can’t Wait and about a dozen others from smaller groups, but the large groups that supported the anti-Bush, anti-war message of the Camp Casey in Crawford were MIA physically and spiritually from the actions in Martha’s Vineyard. Read more.

From Crawford to Chilmark, A Mother Protests for Peace | CindySheehansSoapbox.com
By Megan Dooley | Vineyard Gazette Online

Three American soldiers were killed in combat in the Middle East during the week that President Obama spent vacationing on the Vineyard. Three more mothers lost their children, a sacrifice with which Cindy Sheehan is all too familiar. In 2004, her elder son Casey, then 24 years old, became one more casualty in a war she considers “a hopeless cause,” and “destined for ruin or disaster.”

Last week, Ms. Sheehan called her own troops, a collection of anti-war activists drawn from around the country, to the Vineyard to serve as reminders that the loss of life is ongoing, and to breathe life back into a movement that she has seen all but evaporate in the wake of a new presidential administration.

“It seems that the anti-war movement has disappeared from the face of the earth,” said Ms. Sheehan in an interview Saturday morning. “There’s no protest, [and] there’s very little opposition to Obama and the foreign policy right now.”

Still, she refuses to abandon her mission. “President Obama is here, and I’m still opposed to the policies that he’s carrying out and escalating from the Bush administration,” she said. To those who consider it inappropriate to intrude on the President’s personal vacation, she responded: “When you have troops committed, tens of thousands of troops committed . . . it’s not appropriate to have a lavish vacation.”

Ms. Sheehan staged similar protests during George W. Bush’s presidential vacations, camping out with other protestors outside of his ranch in Crawford, Tex. She doesn’t see why she should not hold President Obama to the same standard. “[People opposed to this week’s protests] are mostly people who didn’t say that when I was harassing George Bush on his vacation.” Read more.