Other Campus: Bush owes army mom direct answers (Maimi-Dad CC-North)

By Falcon Times

(U-WIRE) MIAMI, Fla. – It’s hard not to sympathize with Cindy Sheehan, now camped outside of President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch, after losing her son Casey Sheehan, an Army specialist in Iraq. He is among the 1,829 American troops who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

She is not only a mother who lost her son in Iraq, she is like every American who turns on the 6 o’clock news and is numb by the constant bad news of what seems like the never-ending war in Iraq. Her vow to pitch her tent for five weeks on a patch of grass a mile from Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, is admirable. Her efforts have reenergized the anti-war movement. Camp Casey has attracted a strong following of activists made up of other families who have also lost their sons and daughters in Iraq.

Sheehan and her followers are not the only ones who have gone against the war. Support for the war in Iraq is declining rapidly with no end in sight. A recent opinion poll showed that only 38 percent of voters approve of Bush’s handling of Iraq. Sheehan is determined to meet face-to-face with President George W. Bush, but he has yet to accept her offer. Instead, he sent Stephen Hadley, his National Security Adviser, and Joe Hagin, a White House Deputy Chief of Staff, for a 45-minute talk. This is not enough for Sheehan. She, like thousands of families across the nation, needs straightforward answers, not the filtered words that tend to come out of the White House.

Bush’s refusal to speak to Sheehan is incomprehensible. He has met with other family members who lost loved ones in the war, some who even disagreed with him.

Nevertheless, Bush reached a new low when in response to a reporter’s question as to why he has time for a 2-hour bike ride but not time for Sheehan, he said, “I have to go on with my life,” according to the Austin Statesman.

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Bush should meet with Sheehan and answer directly to her questions, because he owes it to her and countless other parents who have to bury their children.

Although the conversation will not bring back Sheehan’s son, she deserves the dignity and respect of a mother of a son who pledged in the name of freedom to fight an unjust war.

Staff Editorial

The Falcon Times (Miami-Dade CC-North)