POLITICS: Bushwhacked

POLITICS: Bushwhacked

So a grieving mother of a soldier is camped out on President Bush's "White House South" doorstep near Crawford, Texas, where G.W.B. is off vacationing for five weeks or so. Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., says she's not leaving until the President comes out and talks to her about why her son, 24-year-old Casey, died in Iraq last year. She says she's going to stay there until Bush talks to her and tells her more about this "noble cause" he keeps calling Iraq. Bush ain't doing it. See, he has fund-raisers to go to instead.

I just wonder, though. As of Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005, at least 1,844 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The small rural community I live in has had two deaths. The community I grew up in just had its first. Imagine if at least two members of each of those 1,844 soldiers' families went down to join Sheehan. That'd be nearly 4,000 people. Heck, toss in the rest of the dead soldiers' families - and their friends. Say 20 people per death. That makes 73,000 people, which is nowhere near the number of lives that have been touched by G.W.'s war. Imagine the noise that could make. Imagine if the President had any inclination to listen to anyone else's opinions. Imagine the world really was a better place as a result of his responses to the tragedy of 9/11. Imagine that open-mindedness and debate wasn't considered weakness.

Imagine that.