Cindy Sheehan's Mind: Unoccupied Territory

To the mob of supporters who clustered around her for her few weeks of fame, Cindy Sheehan had one purpose: she was a club to beat up George Bush. She was useful for awhile but began to become a liability when she started embroidering on the talking points, and revealed in the process how fundamentally unintelligent she is. (And for that to disconcert the movers of Moveon.org, we're talking REALLY unintelligent.)

Then, just as the handlers were groping around for a new strategy and a better club (would it be Jane Fonda and George Galloway?), a big honkin' three-wood with sleek titanium shaft came along-- Hurricane Katrina-- and club Cindy got dumped back in the old plaid golf bag with the duct tape and the scuffed balls.

But Cindy soldiers on. It's no skin off Michael Moore's or Arianna Huffenpuff's noses to let her bulk up the blog with her latest ravings, even if way fewer people are listening. Friday's (September 16) Michael Moore posting served up her latest gem (my take on it inserted in italics):

Amid the Miserable Failures on the Same Planet
A Message from Cindy Sheehan

...One thing that truly troubled me about my visit to Louisiana was the level of the military presence there. [Funny-- I thought everybody's big complaint was that the military presence was too little, too late. A lie, by the way.]

I imagined before that if the military had to be used in a CONUS (Continental US) operations that they would be there to help the citizens: Clothe them, feed them, shelter them, and protect them. But what I saw was a city that is occupied. [No moreso than if police are on patrol in an emergency in any city in the country-- half of the New Orleans force disappeared, so it's the military. Here on planet Earth, most people think that's a good idea.]

I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me. [Fortunately it takes more than being a fool and obstructing their operations with stupid and provocative questions.]

Sand bags were removed from private property to make machine gun nests. ['Splain to me how machine gun nests assist people on patrol. There's moving, and then there's sitting still. One of these things does not belong....]

...I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power.

["Condi-- I think I may need a power break? Is this possible?" But seriously, folks-- which of the following actions will have the direct effect of feeding a him/her?: Bush stops talking (nope); Bush withdraws military from New Orleans (nope, nope, nope, not even a little bit); Bush excuses his (sic) self from power (nope, no feeding accomplished here].

Back on planet Earth again: "occupied New Orleans"?!!!!

Well, there is at least a certain consistency about Mrs. Sheehan's agenda. People who demand the withdrawal of our military from their work in Iraq and New Orleans (and, heck, throw in Afghanistan-- Cindy always does) do not discriminate between the citizens of all three places. About all three groups it can be said that Cindy Sheehan and her allies:

(a) do not see those citizens as real people but as a faceless mass and a convenient rhetorical tool
(b) are not interested in their opinion of their own situation;
(c) don't care what happens to them;
(d) would gladly sacrifice any benefits to them for the larger goal of bringing down George Bush.

Exactly the same thing can be said about Cindy's and her allies' attitude towards American troops.

If the Cirque de Cindy were to achieve its goals-- bringing down George Bush (a political impossibility, children-- try focusing on winning the next election instead) and withdrawing American troops from both combat and humanitarian roles-- two groups of people would top the list of those who would loathe and despise them for it: the American troops, and the people they are helping in Iraq and New Orleans.

But who cares? A small price to pay for the toppling of Chimpy McHitler.

All this does not change my basic view of Cindy Sheehan as a woman broken by indescribable loss, who is ill-served by those who stoked her rage in Texas, and who have now taken their gnat-like attention spans and moved on to Campaign Katrina, which is itself already on the fizzle because it is so demonstrably bogus.

Anyone who actually cared about Cindy, and about her son, would urge her to do the one thing that will start her on the genuine road to peace of mind, and some degree of usefulness to the world-- that is, to reconcile with her family. Everything else will flow from that. If she were to transform a real healing into positive action-- to put Hillary Clinton in the White House, for instance-- I would groan and roll my eyes and go work for the other team, but I would congratulate her on putting her interior house in order and bringing some meaning to the rest of her life. As it is, she is fully absorbed in actions and people who can do her no lasting good-- even now they are abandoning her, and she has lost way too much already.