Soldier’s Mom to Bush:
"Tell Me Why He Died"

Aug 15, 2005

Spc. Casey Sheehan was killed in Baghdad in April 2004. His mother, Cindy Sheehan, wants George Bush to explain to her why her son had to die. When Bush took to his Crawford Texas ranch for a 5-week vacation, Sheehan camped out near the ranch asking to see Bush. So far, Bush has refused.

Cindy Sheehan says, "I don’t believe his phony excuses for the war. I want him to tell me why my son died. If he gave the real answer, people in this country would be outraged–if he told people it was to make his buddies rich, that it was about oil."It certainly is about controlling the oil of the Middle East, using Iraq as a base. The Bush administration’s phony excuses for starting the war have long since been demolished.

The phony promises about bringing the troops home have also deflated like a limp balloon. As Cindy Sheehan camped out, in the first 10 days of August, more National Guard reserve troops died in Iraq than in any single month of the war so far.

Cindy Sheehan told AFP, "Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference. But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."Sheehan has become a political problem for Bush precisely because she has come to represent all those parents who think it not right for their children to die before them, certainly not six thousand miles away, and most certainly not for the interests of oil companies. Some of them are beginning to appear as a political force.

They represent the troops themselves and their sentiments: hatred of the war, hatred of the pointless deaths, the pointless sufferings, Iraqis and GIs alike.

If the GIs’ hatred of the war grows, it can erode the ability of their commanders to keep them at war. Just as in Viet Nam, the combined pressures from the soldiers who do not want to occupy another country and the people who do not want to be occupied can end this war.