House of Eratosthenes

Normally, I get uncontrollably cheesed-off when people tell me things they know to not be true, and after I do my research I find they’re either ignorant, or must have been hoping I wouldn’t look into the facts behind what they said. When Cindy Sheehan does this, she doesn’t make me angry, she just makes me cringe. I fear for the reputation she has on the national stage, upon which she obviously depends so much for whatever’s left of her emotional health, every time she opens her mouth. Every syllable she utters, every far-leftist cause she allows to hop into bed with her, is another opportunity for her to embarrass herself. She’s playing Russian Roulette, by herself, with three cartridges in the cylinder.

Cindy Sheehan has said one of the reasons she separated with her husband, is that he dealt with his grief by avoiding things that would remind him of Casey’s death, including moving his son’s property into the garage, while she herself has dealt with it by immersion. If that is the case, her bandwagon is a key piece to her emotional solace, and I fear it will come as another bitter blow when that bandwagon goes sailing off a cliff. We live in an age where this happens to people with some regularity…but I don’t think it was as devastating to Dan Rather, when he got STWF’d, as it will someday be to Sheehan after she is knocked off her soapbox for good.

She’s misguided, not evil. Let’s hope she burns out quietly, instead of going supernova the way the Dan-Man did.

Dear Ms. Sheehan,

During our annual August News Drought, a nation beholds your heavily-reported anticipation of a (second) meeting with President Bush, whether we want to or not. You say you have one or several questions to ask of him. Some of us are aware you met with the President and had an opportunity to ask him such questions last year. Many others are not. While it is wrong to publicize the idea that you’re waiting for this meeting, without disclosing the fact that you’ve already had a previous meeting, I see you as playing-along with this falsehood engineered by others rather than engineering it yourself.

We have not yet reached universal agreement that the purpose of your (second) visit is to embarrass President Bush, as opposed to communicating with him in some way, but we have reached the point where nobody paying attention would doubt it. With that in mind, I thought I should mention to you some ways the President could embarrass you, with or without intent, although I’m certain he doesn’t want to. At the very least, he may raise issues you haven’t considered before. Although we’re told the man is an idiot, for an idiot he has an impressive history of doing exactly that.

With all due respect, in the things you’ve written that I’ve read, you haven’t done this. You’re also a media darling. It is difficult to anticipate things when one is imbibing the elixir of media worship, or drowning in grief. You appear to be doing both, so this should be of some use to you. Ponder them in advance of your upcoming (second) hearing, so that you’re not caught considering them for the first time before the cameras that will almost certainly be there. The fame that has clearly become personally important to you, will never become greater than it would be in that instant, nor will it extend much beyond that instant. Don’t blow it. I suggest you review the following line by line. Coming up with compelling answers would be ideal; having simply given them thought, would be almost as good. Being surprised by them would be…awful. We who are opposed to your cause, don’t want to see it die THAT way.

– Your son believed in the cause for which he was fighting. It’s impossible to believe he didn’t since he willingly re-enlisted.
– You don’t speak for all bereaved parents. Proving this is easy.
– In regard to the above, it’s possible another bereaved parent will be there with views different from your own. Other than the President’s demonstrably innate good nature and reluctance to exploit people, there’s no reason to doubt this to be the case. THEY may have questions for YOU.
– Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) were found in Iraq. The fallacy that none were, has been preserved through the technique of re-defining what a WMD is, as each WMD was in fact found.
– Saddam Hussein’s regime was linked to Al-Qaeda, and through them, indirectly to the attacks of September 11, 2001 as well.
– The United States of America has a pressing national interest in stabilizing Iraq, which necessarily included a regime change.
– Regime change in Iraq has been the official United States policy since 1998. That policy, therefore, precedes this administration.
– Some of our national interest has to do with the market for petroleum, which is being consumed by your friends as they put you on film, broadcast you, blog about you, fly in to talk to you, rent cars, crank up the air conditioning when they’re with you, order supplies that have to be trucked around, bring you bottled water, film themselves bringing you bottled water, bottle the water, package up the bottles of water, and put the bottled water in electrical refrigerators to keep it cool.
– Presidents are not on “vacation” no matter where they are. Ever.
– If President Bush has told any “lies” to start this war, in spite of repeated requests from myself & others, nobody’s called out what the lie is. On the other hand, the legend being disseminated that you want to see him simply to ask a question, hardly has the ring of truth to it.
– The vast majority of us don’t think the President lied. He won the last election by a significant margin, which is thought to be a large margin by people like me, albeit perhaps a narrow one by people like you. But it’s proven that he received more votes than his opponent. A lot of people voted against him even though they thought he told the truth about Iraq — but nobody’s ready to insinuate anyone voted for him, believing he lied. We’ve had a national referendum on President Bush lying, and this country has resoundingly rejected this.
– People who want to pressure the President to meet with you (for a second time), knowing that you would rather embarrass him than truly discuss anything with him or ask any genuine questions of him, scare the rest of us. We know those people have excited themselves about their various causes, to the extent where they no longer question the moral implications of what they do.
– The idea that this President is afraid to meet with the parents of our war dead, or is afraid to appear before them without the benefit of a scripted meeting, is unsupported by the facts. It’s possible, in fact likely, that the President is refusing to meet with you to spare YOU from embarrassment.
– As the Commander in Chief, this President knows things about ties between Iraq and Al-Qaeda that you don’t know. This is important to you, because frankly you haven’t demonstrated the quality of staying silent on things you don’t know.
– The President won re-election. If you think he lied or he is an illegitimate President, back this up somehow. Remember that someone cast all those votes. If all you’re going to do is repeat the opinions you think the rest of us ought to have, your final public comments will fall on deaf ears.

I know you will never be shaken from the things you believe about this war. That is not my intent. But in one month, you will be deprived of both your child, and your celebratory status. Many other grieving parents have similarly lost the former but never had the chance to enjoy the latter. I hope wherever the next phase of your life takes you, should it involve your outspokenness or not, it gives you fulfillment, some measure of happiness, and peace.

Thank you for raising Casey, who had the courage and sense of duty to enlist twice. Millions of people like me, who do not share your beliefs, are immeasurably grateful for his sacrifice, to you & the rest of his family, as well as to his memory.

Best Wishes.

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Dear Ms. SheehanMonday, August 15th, 2005

Dear Ms. Sheehan
Monday, August 15th, 2005