Cindy Sheehan Brings Anti-War Message to Germany
By Steve Boggess (03/04/06)
For one to honor those who wear the uniform, and to honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of this nation, one must understand what it is like to wear the uniform, and to die for this country that we call America.
Cindy Sheehan understands none of this, even though her son, Casey, did indeed give the ultimate sacrifice for a cause he believed so much in that he re-enlisted in the Army to continue to defend and support the Constitution of these United States and also to continue to support and defend the Iraqi people. Cindy is so unaware of this that she made a trip to Venezuela in January of this year to give her support to that country’s communist dictator Hugo Chavez.
The leftist organization, American Voices Abroad, is supporting her trip to Germany. Elsa Rassbach, who is an event organizer with this organization, said: “We’ve already heard that Cindy Sheehan is like Hanoi Jane [Fonda] coming here. We’re here to just democratically talk about United States policy.”
Part of the mission statement claimed for this anti-American organization is to “promote peace and to oppose wars of aggression by the United States and to take action towards these ends in relation to United States policy.”
On March 11, 2006, protesters plan to walk from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who are wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are flown to, in order to receive further live saving treatment, or a higher level of medical care that they can’t get in the wartime theater. They will walk from the hospital to parking lot just outside Ramstein Air Base. Cindy will be at a “camp” paying tribute to those who have died in the Iraq war.
If only this woman, whose son Casey has already given so much, truly understood the meaning of the word “tribute.”
A flier about the event said: “Cindy will be with us at Camp Casey Landstuhl/Ramstein to call attention to the fact that Germany is Europe’s logistical hub for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and others threatening Iran and the Middle East.”
Sheehan’s son, Casey, was a specialist (E-4), the rank just below sergeant (E-5), who was assigned to the First Battalion, Eighty Second Field Artillery Regiment, First Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood Texas. Casey lost his life when his unit was attacked with RPG (rocket propelled grenades) and small arms fire in Baghdad.
In Vacaville, California hometown of Casey Sheehan, he was eulogized at Saint Mary’s Church where nearly 1,000 people attended to pay their last respects to this brave and honorable soldier. Casey had been in Iraq only two weeks when he was killed in a battle with Shiite militia outside Baghdad. A long time friend of the Sheehan family, Estella Tucker, described Casey as being a special man and the perfect son.
Casey Sheehan was indeed a special man; he wore the uniform of the United States Army.
Specialist Sheehan and Corporal Forest Jostes both volunteered to be part of a quick response team when rioting started in Baghdad. Carly Sheehan, Casey’s sister, said that her brother was active in his Catholic Church spending ten years as an alter server and serving in the youth ministry. His sister also said of her brother: “That’s all he wanted to do was serve God and his country his whole life. He was a Boy Scout from age six or seven and eventually made Eagle Scout.”
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is about an hour’s drive from the city in Germany that I am now living and working in, Wiesbaden. It is also about a thirty- minute drive from the German/French border.
Cindy Sheehan said her goals are to bring the troops home and have peace on earth. Life must be good in that bubble she has created for herself.
The Kaiserslautern military community is home to more than 50,000 Americans with military ties. Sheehan could face a rough welcome. One soldier who recently returned from Iraq, Army Staff Sergeant Mark Genthner, said: “Anything I have to say about you couldn’t print.”
A protest organizer in Landstuhl said that he was asked by others, including some of the 732 members of the European Union parliament, to arrange the protest involving Cindy Sheehan.
Detlev Besier, who is a Protestant minister in Landstuhl said: “The meeting with Cindy Sheehan is coming to us by an offer of the members of the European Union in Strasbourg [France.]”
According to Marie Shaw, hospital spokeswoman, officials at the medical center have received no requests for the group to visit the hospital or make donations
Elsa Rassbach, the event organizer for the leftist American Voices Abroad added, “Some press and some opponents say that Cindy is coming as their enemy. Our message is ‘support our soldiers, bring them home, and take care of them’ that’s what we’re about.”
Will Cindy Sheehan ever learn? Will she continue to drag her son’s name through the mud by dishonoring his name and memory? Or will she somehow realize that the best way to honor his memory is to stand beside those who truly know how to pay tribute to our fallen heroes who have given the ultimate sacrifice is to both support the troops and the war?
One can only hope.
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