Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, and who’s
been intermittently camped outside President Bush’s ranch in Texas
demanding to meet with him for a second time, has been hailed as
the public face of the antiwar movement. Maureen Dowd of the
New York Times has declared that Sheehan’s moral authority
is “absolute.” So in the interest of more fully tapping that moral
authority, here’s a collection of Sheehan quotes:
“Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn’t know anything, and
we would already be a fascist state.”
“Our government is run by one party, every level, and the
mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government.”
“Then we have this lying bastard, George Bush, taking a five
week vacation in a time of war. You know what? I’m never going to
get to enjoy another vacation because of him. My vacation probably
— this is really sad because I have a really cute dress I was
going to wear to the banquet tomorrow night — but I’m either going
to be in jail or in a tent in Crawford, waiting until that jerk
comes out and tells me why my son died.”
“You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil.
You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me
my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in
the Middle East.”
“And if you think I won’t say bulls**t to the President, I say
move on, cause I’ll say what’s on my mind.”
“You get that evil maniac out here, ‘cause a Gold Star Mother,
somebody whose blood is on his hands, has some questions for
him.”
“The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush.”
“If he thinks that it’s so important for Iraq to have a
U.S.-imposed sense of freedom and democracy, then he needs to sign
up his two little party-animal girls. They need to go to this
war.”
“What can we do to get him out of power? And I’m gonna say the
‘I’ word: Impeach. And we have to have everybody impeached that
lied to the American public, and that’s the executive branch, and
any people in congress, and we got to go all the way down… to the
person who picks up the dogs**t in Washington because we can’t let
somebody rise to the top who will pardon these war criminals.
Because they need to go to prison for what they’ve done in this
world. We can’t have a pardon. They need to pay for what they’ve
done.”
“It’s up to us, the people, to break immoral laws and resist. As
soon as the leaders of a country lie to you, they have no authority
over you. These maniacs have no authority over us. And they might
be able to put our bodies in prison, but they can’t put our spirits
in prison.”
“Is there anyone in America who cannot yet see that Donald
Rumsfeld is a liar, that he — as with Hitler and Stalin — will
say anything so long as he thinks it will help shape the world to
his own liking? Is there even one sane adult among us who cannot
see that Donald Rumsfeld is a threat to our nation’s security and
to peace on our beloved earth?”
“Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry?
Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC [Project for the New
American Century] Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined
the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know
full well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were
betrayed by George [W.] Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC
agenda after 9/11.”
“We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is
contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity
now.”
“I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught
us that America was good, that America was just. America has been
killing people… since we first stepped on this continent; we have
been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that
bulls**t to my son, and my son enlisted. I’m going all over the
country telling moms this country is not worth dying for.”
“Our country has been overtaken by murderous thugs… gangsters
who lust after fortunes and power, never caring that their
addictions are at the expense of our loved ones, and the blood of
innocent people near and far. We’ve watched these thugs parade
themselves before the whole world as if they are courageous
advocates for Christian moral values… and for the spread of
democracy. Yet we all know that they are now putting in place, all
across this country, a system of voting that provides no way to
validate the accuracy of the counting of the votes… and that, by
its very design, prohibits recounting the votes. Our loved ones
have been buried in early graves even as these arrogant thugs
parade themselves before the entire world, insisting that democracy
is worth dying for, killing for, and destroying entire cities
for… In their secret hiding places, while celebrating newly won
fortunes with their fellow brass, these men must surely
congratulate themselves with orgies of carnal pleasure as they mock
the dwindling multitudes who are yet so blind as to mistake them
for God’s devoted servants.”
Come to think of it, Cindy Sheehan is a perfect
mouthpiece for the anti-war movement. Why not go the whole hog and
give her a bi-weekly column at the Times?
