Letter in Chicago Trib: Cindy Sheehan is Helping the enemy

[Martin Eden]

Here's a quote from the letter in today's Chicago Tribune, followed by the response I just sent:

I imagine that I am like a lot of other people in families with military members who are outraged, absolutely and unequivocally, at Cindy Sheehan and others in the Defeat America anti-war movement. And we're mad as heck that our views can't get any traction in the mainstream media. It's the 24/7 Cindy Sheehan Show. Their misinformed, misguided, overblown sermon of victimization, failure and defeat emboldens the enemy to keep up the attacks until we finally capitulate by conveniently providing a withdrawal date.

Here's how I see it: These people are endangering my brother every bit as much as the insurgents and foreign terrorists whose twisted dogma cannot be tempered, reasoned with or negotiated.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509050121sep05,0,7546762.story?coll=chi-newsopinionvoice-hed

my response:

Susan Petrarca ("Helping the enemy" Sept 5) has it backwards. The insurgency in Iraq has nothing to do with the antiwar movement in the U.S. and everything to do with long-simmering sectarian animosities and the Bush administration's fatal errors in judgement. By failing to anticipate and plan for the predictable consequences of invading and occupying Iraq, that country is on the verge of civil war and is attracting foreign jihadis eager for the opprtunity to kill Americans.

According to the CIA's National Intelligence Council, Iraq has become a recruiting and training ground for the next generation of professional terrorists. Many experts view the invasion of Iraq as a strategic blunder in the war against terror, because it has given Osama bin Laden the holy war he needed for rallying angry young Muslims to his cause. If any Americans are helping the enemy, it is Bush and his unwitting supporters who would stifle with accusations of treason any meaningful debate about changing the course of this disastrous foreign policy.

[mzteris]

1. woo-hoo

You GO girl - uh - guy.

Excellent response.

:headbang:

[still_one]

2. you are absolutely correct

when will these people take their heads out of their asses, and realize that it is bush and company who are endangering the soldiers, and our lives

[lebkuchen]

6. When they can't figure it out when a mother who has lost a son in Iraq is

reasoning with facts (rather than "bring 'em on" emotion) and is posing common sense questions we should all be asking, if they still can't figure it out after hearing the casualty list day in and out, then these people are beyond rehab.

[Zenlitened]

3. People like Susan Petrarca ARE the enemy.

They're more dangerous to America than any half-dozen radical Moslems grinding thyeir teeth overseas.

Susan Petrarca is NOT an American. She is the enemy.

[lebkuchen]

4. Terrific! Here's one in today's Stripes by a military spouse in support

of Sheehan.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=31393

Sheehan deserves meeting

As a military spouse who disapproves of the war in Iraq, it is nice to see other families associated with the armed forces stand up and speak their minds (“Bush should see Sheehan,” letter, Aug. 26). It is assumed that all servicemembers and their families agree with George W. Bush’s policies simply because he is commander in chief. It is well-known that, as a soldier, you are given respect based on the rank you hold, but I see it another way. You get respect when you earn respect and Bush continues to lose my respect based on his poor choices.

Cindy Sheehan lost her son in a war that was based on lies and deception by Bush, and it is shameful that he didn’t take a moment out of his precious vacation to speak with her about it.

Recently he had the nerve to publicly say that the majority of military families do not agree with Sheehan. I would like to know what facts that statement was based on because I believe he is absolutely wrong.

Any one of us could shed our blood in the name of Bush’s war and to think that he would not even be compassionate enough to speak one-on-one to our families about it is a slap in the face to the military as well as to the country.

Baumholder, Germany

[Martin Eden]

8. Thanks all, for the positive responses

And thank you lebkuchen, for posting the letter from today's Strpes.

If other military veterans and their families would speak out more and demand answers, the right-wing attack dogs would find it much more difficult to slander and marginalize Cindy Sheehan.

In my arguments with freeper types in another forum I always stress that the bottom line is the well-being and security of the United States of America -- and that the policies of this administration are detrimental to both (not that they are capable of listening to reason, but trying to talk sense to them sharpens my writing skills).

[lebkuchen]

10. You must be very patient. :)

I gave that fight up long ago. Now I push through with "Look, here are the facts, words out of Bush's own mouth, and here are the results. If you still think this guy benefits our country, you're beyond helping even yourself." Ultimately, I prefer to reach those who don't have the facts, either because they're not keeping up, or their source is Rush et al. It has shocked many people I know to find out that Cheney has 5 deferments, for example. Fox doesn't report stuff like that.

At any rate, America needs more of you! Keep it up!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. oh yeah

you got it down in spades! The sooner people realize Bush is the problem, Bush is encouraging the terrorists by what he has done both in Iraq and in his response to Katrina.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. I would say that seeing how the US govt responds to a disaster like

Hurricane Katrina does a hell of alot more to embolden the "enemy" than anything that Cindy Sheehan or any other critic of this administration could say or do.
Susan Petrarca's lips must be purple by now from drinking all that Koolaid.

[Syncronaut Seven]

9. I'm pretty sure the "Defeat America" lobby is financed from the corporate

boardroom. I have plenty of neighbors who are against this bloody imperial travesty that is collectively known as "Bushwars" I've met no one to date that is actively trying to defeat America.

Except maybe that anti UN crazy down the block with the Hummer, suburban and the "fuck you, I got mine" philosophy of life.

[iconoclastic cat]

11. Info on the author

I googled Susan Petrarca (the author) and found her post on this thread: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=6&url=http%3A//polipundit.com/wp-comments-popup.php%3Fp%3D4903%26c%3D1&ei=o3gcQ96oF7-SaZy5xdEM

Her email:
[e-mail]

The google hits: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Susan+Petrarca%22&btnG=Search