August 13, 2005

Continuing Occupation of Crawford, TX

It's day 7 of the peaceful occupation of Crawford, Texas by Cindy Sheehan. She's been joined by people like this soldier from Ft. Hood who's scheduled to deploy to Iraq and many others.

Also holding vigil in Crawford until Monday is Washington State resident Lietta Ruger, whose two sons are about to be deployed to Iraq for the second time. She phoned her husband during the week to describe her day at the Crawford Peace House on Thursday.

Yesterday the protestors were also joined for half an hour by counter-protestors chanting, "We don't care." Bush also drove by yesterday, to go to a $2 million fundraising BBQ.

An interview with Cindy Sheehan is posted at Salon, where towards the end she answers some questions about why she's doing this and the people who are supporting her:

... One thing I want to ask you is about the other groups that are supporting you. Some people on the right have been saying that you're being "used" -- that's the quote I've heard. You're being used by extreme left-wing groups. How do you respond to that?

I respond that this was my idea. This was my mission. This was my vision. And what we're all doing is we're working for peace. And all these groups together are working for peace. And they're helping me with my vision. You know they're not using me, and maybe I'm using them because they're helping me out tremendously in this action.

But what about the pragmatics of it -- if you associate with someone like Michael Moore do you risk losing the mainstream?

I think Michael Moore is an amazing man, an amazing, brave man. And I think people are probably going to start saying don't associate with Cindy Sheehan. People who speak truth to power somehow are marginalized in this country.

I know you're going to be out there for the month of August. How long do you think the media's going to pay attention to you? Do you worry about that?

I don't really care. I didn't come out here to do this for the media. I came out here to do this to end the war. If the mainstream media's not here we've got blogs, we've got the Internet. It'll still keep going. ...

The news has now come in that chemical weapons newly imported into Iraq have been discovered in Mosul. How many more people are going to have to die so that Bush doesn't have to admit he made a mistake?

Posted by natasha at August 13, 2005 02:17 PM | Iraq | Technorati links |
Comments

Are you serious when you speak about peace ?

If US leave Irak that mean death for thousand of irakies peoples. That mean a high risk of instability.

Do you think French goverment of UN are able to do something in there ?

Posted by: Wneir at August 13, 2005 04:09 PM

Thousands of Iraqis have already died, and thousands will die if we stay there. The situation has been so well and truly screwed that there is no option left where 'thousands of Iraqis die' won't be one of the results. It is already, by even the most generous measure, very unstable in Iraq and it gets worse daily. The question is whether we're going to be there to try and postpone their civil war, or if we back out and let them figure it out on their own. It would be nice if there were better options, but Bush burned those bridges.

And no, I don't expect any other western government or the UN to be suicidal enough to step into the mess we've left. The world's best-funded army has thrown around 130,000 troops into the meatgrinder over there, and it may be time to realize that there are problems we can't solve with a sufficient application of US firepower under the lead of Bush II. Have you been paying attention to our military recruiting numbers here? There are no reinforcements to be had unless there's a draft, and that would effectively put an end to this little adventure.

BTW, the cartoons at your site are incredibly puerile.

Posted by: natasha at August 14, 2005 12:15 AM