Foreign Policy

Cindy Sheehan’s Bitter Retreat

So Cindy Sheehan has decided to “throw in the towel.” She is emotionally exhausted and politically frustrated at congressional Democrats for continuing to fund the Iraq war. She no longer wants to be seen as a leader of the anti-war movement and feels betrayed by the Democratic Party and other organizations that rallied behind her two years ago.

The Democratic-controlled House and Senate recently approved fresh billions for the Iraq war on Thursday, minus the troop withdrawal timeline that drew President Bush’s earlier veto. What Cindy is now beginning to understand is the Democrats do not want this war to end. To Sheehan, her crusade against this war was a matter of “right and wrong,” not “right or left.” As she stated, “I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a ‘tool’ of the Democratic Party. However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the ‘left’ started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used.”

Sheehan was deluded into thinking that the Democratic Party wanted this war to end and thought that she was contributing to the betterment of America. She later found out that party leaders could care less. This anti-war movement has cost Sheehan her marriage, and left her broke, bitter and sent home in a devastating retreat. Was Cindy Sheehan a fool for the Democrats, anti-war mongers, and other leftist groups? Unequivocally yes! The Democrats again have shown their true colors in this Iraq war. Keep this war going so that it can better our chances for gaining seats in Congress and winning the White House in ’08.