Cindy Sheehan: At What Price, Safety?

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Cindy Sheehan

I am consistently amazed at things that right-wing nut jobs throw at me to justify their support of an unjustifiable war. Seriously, when you watch Generals, Ambassadors, Senators, Congressmen, and pundits who still cheerlead for a miserable, failed, and murderous policy, you can almost see the skepticism in their eyes, too. They know they are lying for their masters now, if they, like George and Dick, didn't always know they were lying.

However the measly segment of our population that are still so willingly ill-informed and ignorant of the facts are grasping for straws.

At the recent "Support for our Troops" rally held by the Republican backed and funded Move America Forward and Gathering of Eagles (whom I like to call the "Smattering of Pigeons") groups last Saturday, where they had 1/100th of the numbers of the true "Support the Troops" (and the people of Iraq) rally and march sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, we pro-peace people were even called "Communists" several times. I have asked people what they mean when they call me that so-last century epithet and they say: "Yeah, you hate America." Well, for all of those who have eyes but refuse to see, and ears but refuse to hear, this is what Communist means:

Someone who supports communism, a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

I don't see how wanting peace and wanting our government to finally quit lying to us and stop killing people to further their hegemonic goals of bringing corporate America to every corner of the globe makes us Communists; maybe Humanists, patriots, or great Americans, but Communists, no. Some people in America do belong to the Communist party, which is not against the law, and it is also not against the law to be a Muslim, yet.

One of the more morally reprehensible notes from the supporters of death I receive is the one that goes something like this: "I am for peace, too, but not at the expense of my family." These people are saying that it is okay to ruin my family and thousands of other families in the U.S. who have been torn apart like the bodies of our loved ones to keep other families "safe." I have news for these people, as bad as the sacrifices have been for some families in America, the people of Iraq have suffered far more for the deceptions and greed of BushCo. Think about this: America killed over a million Iraqis between Gulf I and this current occupation, and that did not keep my family safe, or the families of the people killed in 9-11. How can one sleep at night thinking that her family is safe when so many people are devastated by the policies that she thinks is keeping her family safe? Never mind the National Intelligence Estimates that have rightly showed that our transgressions in Iraq and inhumane prison camps such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are increasing Islamic extremism.

What makes Mrs. Safety think the Iraqi babies are less precious than her babies? Does the geographic accident of her baby's births give them more right to be safe than the Iraqi babies? Maybe Mrs. Safety thinks her babies deserve more protection because they are white and Christian? Or just maybe because they are hers?

I spent 24 years of my children's lives thinking that I was doing everything I could to protect them. I guarded the boundaries of my family like a Doberman. I didn't let anything bad in those boundaries to hurt my children until 2000 when an Army recruiter broke through my defenses to lie like a son of a bitch to my son who would ultimately be killed so Mrs. Safety's babies could have the illusion and delusion of safety. Casey and my family paid a dear price for my thinking that my babies and my boundaries are the only ones that were precious and worth protecting. It will only be when we realize that all human life is precious and worthy of protection and know that all of the world's children belong to all of us that war will stop being used as a tool in Satan's toolbox of greed and destruction.

Many Muslims and American soldiers have told me that I may have lost a son, but I have gained millions of sons and daughters in my work for global peace and understanding. They are all our sons and daughters as Casey was your son.

We have to stop giving our leaders free passes to kill our children, anywhere and everywhere.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and The Camp Casey Peace Institute.

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