I chose to make the trip to Camp Casey at Crawford first because I am in total sympathy with Cindy Sheehan's cause, and second because I recognized that history was being played out in this confrontation between a determined mother and an arrogant, self-isolated president. The issue was a monumental one: the "Noble Cause" for which our sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, are being asked to give their lives.
After arriving at camp, and pitching my small tent in the very narrow, very sloping ditch, I set out to find my place in this community. The heat was oppressive, but was no match for the exhilaration generated by this very determined, focused, and energized group of caring individuals. Everyone pitched in, and there were plenty of jobs to go around: shuttling people between the Crawford Peace House, Camp Casey I, and Camp Casey II, cooking at the 3 sites, 24 hour security patrols, cleanup, traffic control, shopping for supplies, organizing events, first aid, etc. During the 5 days of my stay, the number of "residents" of the Sheehan group ranged from about 400 to 750, with a constant turnover as residents left and new arrivals came to take their place. There was a constant stream of visitors, dropping by for the day to express their support of the stand being taken. These people had travelled from all over the country to make their voices heard.
The first thing that struck me was the sight of the crosses lining one side of the road leading up to Camp I. Most bore names of individuals, carefully hand-printed on slips of paper affixed to the crosses by rubber bands. There was an area set up at the beginning of the row of crosses with photos of the individuals, and many family pictures. The sense of the precise personal loss exacted by this war was overwhelming. I suddenly "knew" these people, they had faces, they had families. I am not a religious person, but each cross became an individual to me. My lovely daughter is in the reserves. I could see her name rubberbanded to one of these crosses. I could feel the void, the emptiness. A cold chill still runs through me as I look back on this scene.
I also contemplated the opposite side of the road, the side of the Bush encampment. There appeared to be perhaps 3 tents set up under a sun tarp. A few other individuals would arrive daily in late model, shiny SUVs and pickups to sit in the shaded chairs and glare across at the Sheehan group and then leave. Opposite the crosses, they set up their statement, their argument. Their statement consisted of hundreds of large, professionally printed yard signs bearing the message: "THIS IS BUSH COUNTRY." There was also a hand-made sign displayed prominently at their tent area which read, "This is about TERRORISM stupid." I found all of this quite revealing, and very representative of the great divide separating the general population of this country.
To those on the opposite side of the road, the country belongs to Bush, "THIS IS BUSH COUNTRY." It is something he somehow won in the election. We now belong to him. We are all part of his "political collateral." Bush couldn't wait to spend that collateral, and spend it is just what he's done. He has bankrupt this nation, in every area. The position of President, temporarily granted, does not come without ties, does not free him from accountability. Those crosses, those fine dead soldiers, those individuals who became part of Bush's spending spree can no longer explore the reason for their ultimate sacrifice. That does not mean we should forfeit our responsibility on their behalf. The people on the Bush side of the road, swelled with false patriotic hype, viciously lash out at those who question the original motives for the war, the careful funneling of selected intelligence, the purposeful manipulation of information, the "fixing" of public opinion to support the predetermined agenda. These truths have been exposed, yet they are continuously ignored by those entrenched on the Bush side of the road.
And their second point: "This is about TERRORISM stupid." 9/11 was about terrorism. And, what happened to this terrorist threat under the Bush leadership? Scant attention and resources were directed toward Afghanistan, and the capture of Osama bin Laden. Bush literally let bin Laden go in order to pursue his long desired goals (control of oil resources and regime change) in Iraq. Was "This about TERRORISM"? No, Bush was not focused on terrorism, he was focused on the corporate wealth just waiting to be claimed. Al Qaeda was not working with Saddam. They represented the extreme opposites of Moslem ideology. But this did not prevent Bush from creating a fictitious connection. A lie is as good as the truth if it can be spun to fool enough people. That is the Bush ethic. And what has been the result? We have attacked a country and a people that had nothing to do with 9/11. We have devastated a country and a people for a lie. Bush did this with little military planning--a flagrant disregard for the safety of our troops, inadequate in number, lacking in basic supplies and proper equipment. In our showy race to Bagdad, Bush failed to secure towns. He left what our soldiers put their lives on the line for open behind them for reoccupation by insurgents. The operation was botched due to negligent planning. It has been a disaster from the beginning. Iraq has become a magnet for terrorists, as they stream in from all borders. We provided a cause for these fanatics, a cause that was not there prior to Bush's unjustified attack on this sovereign nation with no ties to the 9/11 attack on us. Has Bush lessened the threat of terrorism by his actions? He has, instead, created a petri dish to spawn terrorists who now threaten the lives of innocents throughout the world. And, because of his actions and arrogance, we have few friends left throughout the world willing to work with us in the concerted effort needed to fight this threat. Bush's lies, his ineptitude, his arrogance has made us, and the world, less safe.
The many veterans, many military families (and even individuals currently serving in the military) made up a large strong core of the residents at Camp Casey. Their accounts of Bush's neglect after they return from service were deplorable. His cuts in services and benefits have been catastrophic for the returning soldiers. Closing of hospitals providing essential services, red tape preventing many from obtaining critical and immediately needed care (prosthetic devices that would allow them to go back to work, but have not been provided after months and even years of waiting), psychological and physical problems, including the effects of Depleted Uranium, that are denied and go untreated. Halliburton skims billions from the top of the military budget, while soldiers go under protected, under supplied, and veterans are abandoned once their service has been ended.
So, is Cindy Sheehan justified in demanding that Bush be accountable for her son's death? What is the "noble cause" that Bush is spending our sons' and daughters' lives for? Are those crosses along the side of the road and those who have come back injured just pocket change to Bush? Just part of his personal "political collateral"?
Unfortunately, Bush's ineptness and greed is not limited to his handling of the war in Iraq. These shortcomings are systemic throughout his Administration: Bush's isolation from the public, the secrecy that cuts the public off from normal oversight of the workings of their government, the funneling of cherry picked information/intelligence (Bolten is a poster child for doing the very thing the 9l11 Commission warned contributed to the 9/11 tragedy), the firing, reassigning or punishing of those who dare voice opposing views (even to the extent of exposing a CIA agent because her husband exposed one of the Administration's lies), appointing unqualified political cronies and big campaign contributors to important government positions (FEMA is a good example, but extends to almost all Bush appointments), ignoring environmental issues (urging the EPA to assure people it was safe to return to normal activities in the ground zero area within a few days after 9/11, before the air was even tested, in order to make sure the stock market was back up and running--exposing workers and children to horrendous levels of asbestos from the debris of the fallen buildings), denying scientific evidence of global warming which places the entire world at risk, channeling endless tax breaks and lucrative government contracts into the hands of the favored few, enacting executive orders like the one suspending the Davis-Bacon Act that further victimizes the victims of Katrina by awarding no bid contracts to Halliburton and other favored corporations, while releasing these companies from paying prevailing minimum wages (is the government paying these corporations less than the going rate for their services?), the list is endless. We have become a bankrupt nation, both monetarily and morally, due to this Administration. When Bush claims about the debacle in Iraq, about the effects of global warming, about the condition of the levees in New Orleans that "know one could have foreseen" the resulting devastation, this is not true. The details were there, they were simply ignored.
Nancy Pelosi's observation is right on target when she describes Bush as "oblivious, in denial, dangerous." This is a failed administration. It has failed its citizens in all areas. The remedies of impeachment or replacement are available, but for that to happen, a few more of you sitting over on the "This is Bush Country" side of the road will need to move over to the side of the road with the crosses, over to those who have sacrificed their lives, and are waiting for us to give them a voice.