[Mb-civic] Cindy Sheehan: attacked, her response, the apology

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040406N.shtml

Congressman Jack Kingston's blog:

Cindy Sheehan IS A "Nutcase" March 31st, 2006, by Press Staff

In today's CongressDailyAM (full story after the jump due to
subscription), Sue Davis reports that Congressman Kingston got into
a "discussion" yesterday in a closed-door meeting with two liberal
Democrats regarding anti-war beatnik, Cindy Sheehan.

A closed hearing of the House Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee turned contentious Thursday as Rep. Jack Kingston,
R-Ga., Subcommittee ranking member Jack Murtha, D-Pa., and others
sparred over the meaning of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, heroes
and military service.

According to one Democratic source present at the hearing,
Kingston commented that Sheehan was "a nutcase" and lamented that
too many of the human interest stories coming out of the war in
Iraq center on anti-war activists like Sheehan and filmmaker
Michael Moore and do not give proper service to heroic tales of
U.S. soldiers.

"Who would argue that Cindy Sheehan's son is not a hero? I
mean, come on," he said, chalking the exchange up to election-year
politics.

"I think she is a very flaky woman," Kingston told
CongressDaily. "I think we need more heroes. The only people that
get press are people like Moore and Sheehan."

Cindy Sheehan is a nutcase. In fact, you may remember Cindy
Sheehan from her recent trip to Venezuela for the World Social
Forum where she met with Venezuela's anti-American leftist
president, Hugo Chavez (pictured above).

Or you may recall how she refers to the terrorists who are
killing American soldiers in Iraq as "freedom fighters." Check out
this story by WorldNetDaily for more. The problem is that what
Howard Dean famously termed the "democratic wing of the Democratic
Party" has now completely taken over.

For reference, Congressman Jack Kingston's website:
http://kingston.house.gov/blog/?p=136.
For reference, Congressman Jack Kingston's e-mail:
Kingston.Press.Office at mail.house.gov.

***

TruthOut - Apr 3, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040306A.shtml

Cindy Sheehan Responds to Congressman's Attacks

By Cindy Sheehan

Saturday 01 April 2006

Congressman Kingston,

How dare you psychoanalyze me and call me a "nutcase!" How dare
you call me a beatnik and lie about me in your blog!

First of all, April 4th, 2006, this upcoming Tuesday, will be
the 2nd anniversary of my son's death. Casey Austin Sheehan was a
man filled with integrity and courage. He was a hero who never
backed down from the right thing his entire life. He was an amazing
person who did not hide when his commander in chief sent him to a
war based on lies even when he knew they were lies. He carried out
his duty, unlike his commander in chief, who went AWOL from the
Alabama Air National Guard (whoo ... tough duty), and he
volunteered to serve his country, unlike the vice-commander in
chief, who had "other priorities" during the Vietnam war. I am not
against anyone getting out of that generation's mistake of a war,
but to illegitimately come to power when they grew up and send an
entire new generation off to fight, die and kill innocent people in
their own war of choice for greed is unconscionable. I hope I am
not using words that are too big for you.

Second of all, I have never called "terrorists" freedom
fighters. I have called the resistance fighters who killed Casey
such, but they are fighting to get the occupying forces out of
their country and have a legitimate right to wage a resistance
against occupiers. I don't like that they are killing our children
- for God's sake, they killed my oldest child, my sweet and
wonderful Casey. However, our government is committing war crimes
and crimes against humanity against the people of Iraq. Have you
heard of white phosphorous? Have you heard of torture? Have you
heard of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo? Have you heard about our
Constitution and the Geneva Conventions?

Have you also heard that Saddam had nothing to do with the
tragedy of 9/11 and that he had no WMD? How can you support a liar
and his policies that are draining our precious life blood,
depleting our military, sucking our treasury dry and have harmed,
almost beyond repair, the people and land of the Gulf States hit by
Hurricane Katrina? Have you heard that Osama bin Ladin is still at
large and two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, that had nothing to
do with 9/11 are devastated? I hope they can recover from George's
brand of "freedom and democracy."

As to you having a problem with me meeting with Hugo Chavez,
who survived a coup that was orchestrated by the Bush
administration and has been democratically elected to his office 8
times? You can't pick and choose to support only the Democracies
that agree with George Bush. I don't support everything that
President Chavez stands for, but his people love him, and he is
truly trying to make things better for the 80 percent of the people
who were in poverty when he took over; has has reduced that figure
to 37 percent. He is stealing from the rich to help the poor,
whereas George Bush and his policies do the opposite. Hugo Chavez
is not anti-American - he is anti-George Bush, and I have to agree
with him on that. He has provided low cost heating fuel to
underprivileged citizens in our own country and has donated at
least $40,000 to the various aid organizations in the Gulf States.

Did you have a problem with George Bush kissing the sheik from
Saudi Arabia when 16 of the terrorists that flew airplanes into our
buildings on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia? Did you have a problem
with Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand and selling him weapons
that are now killing our children in Iraq? Do you have a problem
with the fact that since your party's devastating invasion of Iraq,
members of the so-called "Axis of Evil" have become more powerful
and even more dangerous to America? Did you have a problem with
George Bush wanting to sell our ports to Dubai, when they are one
of the only countries on earth that recognize the Taliban? Did you
have a problem with the bin Laden family being flown out of the
United States days after 9/11, when our own citizens could not fly
and many of us were trapped far from our homes ourselves? Did you
have a problem with George, et al, ignoring all of the intelligence
reports before 9/11 that said that terrorists were planning on
"flying airplanes" into our buildings?

I am not a leftwing Democrat and I hold many of the members of
that party as responsible as I hold your party and George Bush and
his administration. I do not think that there is anything political
about an illegal and immoral war.

Our country was founded on dissent and on the blood of "freedom
fighters." I have every right to be doing what I am doing to try
and stop the needless and unnecessary killing without being wrongly
judged by you. I believe that you and anyone else who would deny
me, and Michael Moore for that matter, our rights and
responsibilities as patriotic Americans are the ones who are
un-American and traitors to the American way of life. A member of
your own party and a noted war-monger, Theodore Roosevelt, said:

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to
stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly
to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is
patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the
country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent
that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by
the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the
truth, whether about the president or anyone else."

George Bush has admitted that Saddam had no WMD or ties to
al-Qaeda. He has admitted to spying on Americans without due
process and has called the Constitution an "old scrap of paper." He
is responsible for the tragic deaths of thousands of people and for
America losing its reputation in the international community, and
to support his failed presidency is not only unpatriotic, as Teddy
said, but is also a war crime.

I am not a nutcase and I am not an unpatriotic war criminal
like you and others who still support the most failed presidency in
the history of our country.

What I am is a devastated, broken-hearted mother who will mourn
the needless death of my son for the rest of my life. I just want
the killing to stop before there are anymore American or Iraqi
Casey and Cindy Sheehans.

Peace soon,

Cindy Sheehan

***

Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 16:16:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com
Subject: [NYTr] Congressman Apologizes to Cindy Sheehan for Attacks
To: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (NYTr List)
Message-ID: <200604042016.k34KGuZ22596 at olm.blythe-systems.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

[JackKingstonBlog.com via TruthOut - April 4, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040406N.shtml

Editor's Note: Congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia has apologized
to Cindy Sheehan after deriding her as a "nutcase," both in a House
committee meeting and in his blog. Sheehan responded forcefully to
the Congressman's comments in a statement published on TO Monday,
April 3rd.

Congressman Apologizes to Cindy Sheehan After Attacks

Monday 03 April 2006

Dear Ms. Cindy Sheehan,

Thank you very much for your email. I appreciate your spirit in
dialogue and debate and our mutual devotion to the First Amendment.

I want to apologize for my personal categorization of you and
for allowing myself to get involved in such low-level name calling.

While you and I disagree on the war effort, I certainly did not
intend to attack you personally. I have great appreciation for your
perspective and your sacrifice as an American who has lost a loved
one in the War on Terrorism.

This is a very emotional time in America, and my concern these
days has been my 20,000+ constituent soldiers. As I have spoken
with them in Iraq and their families back home they have expressed
grave concern about the pessimistic media coverage of the war and
its dissenters.

As you know, these volunteer soldiers aren't in it for praise
but I do think their spirits are hurt by coverage that reports all
the bad news and none of the good. Such coverage tends to focus on
dissenters of the war and less on those in the field.

This isn't just my own personal opinion, but one that has been
formulated by listening to the troops and their families. I suppose
in my own stumbling way, I am trying to speak for them.

In any case, I hope you'll accept my apology and I look forward
to continuing our discussion about this issue.

Sincerely,
Jack Kingston
Member of Congress



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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

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