MAIN People in the News Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan, the mother who became an anti-war leader after her soldier son was killed in Iraq, is credited for being one of the initial voices of protest over the Iraq war.

Helping to galvanize a fledgling peace movement in the summer of 2005, Sheehan first emerged as a public figure and sparked nationwide attention in August with a personal protest at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas.

At the time, Sheehan requested to personally meet with President George W. Bush at his vacation ranch to ask why her son was killed. After failing to obtain a meeting the Bush, she continued to protest the administration's Iraq War policy, and was ultimately arrested by police in the House gallery prior to President Bush's State of the Union address on January 31, 2006.

With the movement building momentum, Sheehan next appeared as the featured speaker at Bring 'Em Home Now, a concert for peace in New York. In the months that followed, she was joined by such celebrities as Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and Willie Nelson who lent support to her Troops Home Fast campaign which she began outside the White House on July 4th.

At the time, Sheehan announced that her plan was to abstain from eating and to consume only water or juice throughout the summer in her continuing protest against the war.

But with the war still raging by 2007, Sheehan had all but given up on her mission, and finally announced her personal "heartbreak" in a farewell message in which she admitted that for so little in return she had sacrificed her health, her husband, and her life savings.

Only six weeks later, however, Sheehan was again making headlines with news that she planned to run against House Speak Nancy Pelosi if impeachment hearings against President Bush were not enacted.

With the peace movement now having come full circle, her ultimatum coincides with a poll illustrating a growing number of Americans polled are now in favor of impeaching both Bush and his Vice President, Dick Cheney, for lying about WMD and other falsehoods in the onward march to war in Iraq in 2003.

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A Mother Scorned

Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey Sheehan, died in combat at age 24 in Iraq on April 4, 2004, one year after the 2003 Iraq invasion. Two months after Casey's death, Sheehan was among a group of grieving military family members who met with President Bush.

As her critics later pointed out, her initial comments reflected trust in the president's handling of the war, and after her meeting with Bush Sheehan reportedly declared him "a man of faith."

A year later, however, her mistrust of Bush had only grown over the lack of evidence for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, coupled with the Downing Street Memo that called the war's legality into question - which only fueled her rage and disillusionment with the war and the administration.

Her virtual one-woman crusade, which kicked-off outside the Bush compound in Walker, Texas, almost immediately spurred a counter-demonstration led by Protest Warrior, a group that frequently held counter-protests to anti-war rallies.

Outside the White House

Sheehan later took her protest on the road with an antiwar bus tour to Washington D.C.

Along the way, her tour included a visit to New York City where police were ordered to shut down a speech by Cindy Sheehan for unauthorized use of a loudspeaker.

On the weekend of September 24-26 2005, the Sheehan tour culminated in an anti-war protest at the White House which moved to the Justice Department before assembling at the Washington Monument for an 11-hour concert. (Two months, later Sheehan and 26 other peace activists were found guilty of protesting without a permit near the White House on September 26 and ordered to pay $75 in fines and court costs.)

Cindy Heads Home ...

One of Sheehan's last run-ins with Washington security occurred on the visitors' gallery above the House chamber, just before President Bush was about to give his annual State of the Union address on January 31, 2006.

Tired and in failing health by the following year, Sheehan announced that she was walking away from the anti-war movement citing a grueling, uphill battle against both the Democrats and Republicans who at best "play politics with human lives" and in her final statement added, "I failed my boy and that hurts the most."

... and Revives an 'Impeach Bush' Push

However, a few short weeks later, Sheehan had apparently rallied once again to take on both the Bush administration, and the head of the Democratic party, by announcing she will run as an independent candidate against Pelosi in 2008 if the San Francisco Democrat does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush.

To publicize her latest campaign, Sheehan and supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., on July 23 after a 13-day caravan and walking tour from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch.

Related News, Pictures, Bios

Cindy Sheehan - Wikipedia

NYC police shut down speech by Cindy Sheehan (MSNBC)

Why mothers push for peace (BBC)

Pardon My English - Sheehan Family Tells Cindy To Stop

Meet with Cindy.org

Crawford Peace House

"A Lie of Historic Proportions" by Cindy Sheehan

Quotes

• This is George Bush’s accountability moment.

• The people who are slamming me have no idea about what it feels like to unjustly have a child killed in an insane war.

• When I was growing up, it was Communists. Now it's terrorists. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets...

• 58% of the American public are with us. We're preaching to the choir, but the choir's not singing. If all of the 58% started singing, this war would end.