Cindy Sheehan and Women "Designers of History"

[Ed Ziomek]

I want to take time out to acknowledge a momentous revolution that is taking place.

Cindy Sheehan, by simply camping out on the front lawn of Crawford Texas, George Bush's ranch, ... is making a profound statement heard around the country, around the world, and is an echo of histories before her.

A single voice, a woman's voice, a mother's voice, like all American and Iraqi and Afghani mothers, and all other mothers who have lost their children and husbands and daughters in these wars.

But let me mention other Cindy Sheehan's of history, not forgotten.

Let me mention the "Mothers of the Disappeared" in Argentina and Chile and Bolivia, remember those 30,000 students and priests and activists? Who can forget? And sad to say... what role did the ??? play? What shame do I share in this horror?

Let me also mention the women of the "White Rose" movement of Nazi Germany, 1943, who KNEW the exterminations were taking place, and who secretly protested, were arrested, and executed in hideous ways not mentionable. Yes, good Germans made 7 attempts on Hitlers life, and thousands paid the ultimate price.

Let me mention the mothers and wives of Athens Greece, who during the long 10 years of war with Troy, and the absence of their husbands and fathers, finally exploded in rage and "decapitated" the male statuary throughout the city. That was the most they could do, and we still talk about it.

Let me mention the Onon-da-ee-gah wah, aka Onondaiga Indian tribe, part of the Iroquois Confederation. This name means "first descendant -on the maternal side", the "One-dowager", "first dowager". At that time, and for thousands of years previous to it, agrarian societies could easily be matriarchal, societies ruled by Queens with the eldest daughter getting the inheritance. Mother earth. Mother of creation. Fertility. The essence of life.

As I understand it, the Women ruled the tribes and made the peace and tilled the soil. The men were the hunters and the warriors, and thought it beneath themselves to make peace...

THAT WAS WOMEN'S WORK!

So as simple a gesture as Cindy has done... can we thank her for her marvelous contribution to the Peace of this world? And to the enormous lessons we can learn from history.

God Bless her.

Thoughts?

[Richard Haut]

Cindy is a brave lady - however Bush's response appears to be that the sacrifice of those that he was evidently happy to sacrifice should be honoured by ratcheting up the war in Iraq.

Bush has given his answer. More American dead.

For it or against it - what Cindy has helped to do is to knock down the fence in the middle.

It is America - not Iraq - that has reached its tipping-point.

Will history remember Cindy ? Maybe. More likely it will remember a Four-Star General who - if the rumours are true - may just have saved your life in the last week.

[Ed Ziomek]

One heroic person remembered, and one news item... I want to add....

One is a mention of Marla Ruzicka, Lakeport California, who was killed in Iraq on April 18th, 2005. She had personally traveled to Afghanistan, Africa, and other locations on various humanitarian causes, and was in Iraq advocating for the people who were suffering there.

On a second story, though, it appears that women's rights will NOT be enhanced in the new Iraqi regime, and in fact, there may be a "30-year-cultural roll back".

So am I optimistic that progress for Peace is being made, in Iraq, yes.

As for progress for women's rights, which I view as essential human rights in all societies, I am hopeful that the Islamic countries will open up on these issues.

But they may not, and I am concerned.

[SDR]

Without doing the necessary research to back up my claim, I believe it is correct to say that what is being played out in Iraq is pretty much what was predicted -- by those not beholden to the current resident(s) of the White House. The folowing editorial, from last Wednesday's NY Times, seems to me to sum up the current situation -- including the disappointing aspect of respect for women:

August 24, 2005

President Bush's Loss of Faith

It took President Bush a long time to break his summer vacation and acknowledge the pain that the families of fallen soldiers are feeling as the death toll in Iraq continues to climb. When he did, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Utah this week, he said exactly the wrong thing. In an address that repeatedly invoked Sept. 11 - the day that terrorists who had no discernable connection whatsoever to Iraq attacked targets on American soil - Mr. Bush offered a new reason for staying the course: to keep faith with the men and women who have already died in the war.

"We owe them something," Mr. Bush said. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for." It was, as the mother of one fallen National Guardsman said, an argument that "makes no sense." No one wants young men and women to die just because others have already made the ultimate sacrifice. The families of the dead do not want that, any more than they want to see more soldiers die because politicians cannot bear to admit that they sent American forces to war by mistake.

Most Americans believed that their country had invaded Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, but we know now that those weapons did not exist. If we had all known then what we know now, the invasion would have been stopped by a popular outcry, no matter what other motives the president and his advisers may have had.

It is also very clear, although the president has done his level best to muddy the picture, that Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11. Mr. Bush's insistence on making that link, over and over, is irresponsible. In fact, it was the American-led invasion that turned Iraq into a haven for Islamist extremists.

When Mr. Bush articulated his "comprehensive strategy" for responding to the threat of terrorism, he listed three aims: "protecting this homeland, taking the fight to the enemy and advancing freedom." The invasion of Iraq flunks the first two tests. But it did free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator and may still provide an opportunity to inspire the rest of the Arab world with an example of democracy and religious toleration.

Right now, however, the Iraqi Assembly is dickering over a constitution draft that would not accomplish any of the American goals. It would fail to protect the rights of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and the rights of women, and it would enshrine Islam as a main source of law. It could well lead to a fracturing of Iraq into an all but independent, and oil-rich, Kurdish homeland in the north and an oil-rich Shiite theocracy in the south, while the oil-poor center was left to the disaffected Sunnis, the terrorists and the American troops. It's an outcome that would make the violent religious extremists very happy.

Preventing that kind of tragic last chapter is the only rational argument for continuing the American presence in Iraq. The president's strange declaration yesterday that the draft constitution would protect the rights of women and minorities, and his continuing attempts to clog the debate with misleading explanations, suggest his own lack of commitment to the only rationale for keeping American troops in Iraq - or, perhaps, his lack of faith in the likely outcome.
___________________________________________________________

SDR

[Ed Ziomek]

SDR, thanks for the comments and New York Times article.

There are times I criticize, and there are times I pray. In the last two weeks, with George Bush's back-to-back vacations in the midst of war, and the recent quote from someone... "the peak of the insurgency is over", I wonder and I sincerely pray...

"Are you all right, Mr. President?"

"Do you have a basic understanding of the situation, Mr. President?"

Today, I heard ex-Mayor Koch, and ex-Senator D'Amato in a Bloomberg radio broadcast... basically paraphrased... "Declare Victory and Leave".

I say... the people of Iraq have a democratic right to choose a nightmare if they wish. It has been 10,000 years of nightmare for that part of the world. We can't change that. We can't correct that.

They will rollback women's rights in 6 minutes or 6 hours or 6 days or 6 months... why not "Leave now rather than Later".

Ex-President Clinton is convening a meeting of world leaders in September... so we hold our breath... and I certainly ask...

#1. "What will Bill Clinton do?" and then,

#2. "What would Hillary Clinton do?"

Thanks Rich and SDR.... excellent insights...

[Richard Haut]

this article gives a very different view of the world and - maybe - why the Twin Towers fell (structural engineers are advised that reading this article may cause emotional distress):

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2

[SDR]

That is a total hoot ! I love the "graphic" in the illustration, with "God's finger" (by Michaelangelo?) pushing an object off of a surface.

Unintelligent Promoters of "Design" might be a good name for these "scientists". . .?

SDR

[Richard Haut]

[SDR]

Mr Robertson would seem to have destroyed his credibility completely by now; what's so scary about America these days is that he'll probably not lose any of his listenership at all !

"Send in those dollars, folks -- God needs them" or some such.

SDR

[DR]

So ... what is the Crawford Crackpot, Cindy Sheehan, up to lately? Well, of course she continues to bask in the media spotlight as Hollywood celebrities now make their pilgrimages to pay homage. She also continues to post her thoughts at various places on the Internet. In part, here is what she had to say yesterday about others who have lost sons or daughters in Iraq:

"Iraq DID NOT have WMD's; Iraq WAS NOT linked to Al Qaeda and 9/11; Iraq WAS NOT a threat or danger to America. How can these moms who still support George Bush and his insane war in Iraq want more innocent blood shed just because their sons or daughters have been killed? I don't understand it."

Sorry, Cindy; but every time you open your mouth you do more to prove to the world that you just don't know what you're talking about. Obviously Iraq DID have WMDs. There are tens of thousands of dead Iranians and Kurds to testify to this fact. Also, Iraq WAS most certainly linked to Al Qaeda. The links are detailed in the 911 Commission report as well as the David Kay report.

At any rate .. now this strange woman is calling other mothers who have lost their children in Iraq "continue the murder and mayhem moms." Incredible.

[SDR]

Hardly. Whether it suits your world-view or not, she happens to be right. One gets the impression that those who call for the indefinite prosecution of this insult to the Middle East, do so because ending it "prematurely" would be to admit that it might have been a bad idea in the first place. Throwing "bad money (etc) after good" is hardly rational, it's just . . .consistent. We spend a billion dollars a WEEK there, with much of it going to KBR and friends. We were lied to -- and so were you.

As for your assertions about what is contained in the 9/11 Commission and David Kay reports, you are simply mistaken.

But, believe what you may, the fact is that NOW we have a terror problem in Iraq, and elsewhere in the region. Thank you so much, neocons.

SDR

[Kevin]

One small way you can help the cause of which Cindy is a part is to read and consider signing this "Talk to Cindy" petition (at one of our sister sites) which was started recently by a few of us in Oregon:

http://www.petitiononline.com/t2cindy/

And if you agree with it, spread the word to some friends!

[dgt]

I am afraid that with the current swamp of politics that the U.S. finds itself embroiled in, there is little hope but to hold on tight and pray for a miracle.

How can the truth play any role other than a whipping boy when the 'other' side refuses to see the forest for the trees?

More and more information is revealed everyday about the nefarious dealings that brought us into this war. Yet the right shares the cacoon of ignorance the president uses and twist facts or outright lies to turn every bungle, screwup or outright failure into a victory.

WMD's...False
Connection to Al Qeida...False
Greeted as Liberators...False
Humane and just treatment of prisoners...False
Training of Security Forces on schedule...False
Iraq Constitution on time...False
Termination of anyone involved with Plame Leak...outright lie

Cindy Sheehan seems to be the voice of those effected by the war that are afraid to speak out lest they are attacked. Low and behold, she is attacked. No wonder we consistantly get one biased side and the other opinions are stamped as unpatriotic or even worse 'undermining the war effort'.

I heard Fox News Chief Military Consultant state that Cindy Sheehan was hurting troop moral. WHAT!! It couldn't be the fact that Iraq is in a state of civil war and that a large part of the 'insurgency' is actually the Iraqis that are fed up with the occupation. It certainly is not all those HumVees outfitted with steel plates found at junkyards and the complete lack supplies that continually haunt the brave men and women oversees.

Too many to list...

Read "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell" by John Crawford.

Regards,
dgt

[Ed Ziomek]

Thank you for your contribution of the 7 "reasons and promises"... proved false.

Let me add three more...

8. Niger yellow cake (on ficticious documents)
9. Democracy and Freedom for the Middle East (where it never existed)
10. Free Elections (but not Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, or Bath)
11. Our troops are over there NOW in tribute of those fallen before them... or something to that effect.

The goalposts keep moving.

Can you imagine the morale of America troops WITHOUT a Cindy Sheehan standing up?

[Richard Haut]

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" - Bush on ABC's Good Morning America, 1st. September 2005.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509020001

what did FEMA first send to New Orleans ? anti-Anthrax vaccine.