Posted 12:05 PM by Robert

Please Leave Her Alone, And Allow Her Son To Rest In Peace

From a Wall Street Journal comment by the father of an American soldier who fell in Iraq:

By all accounts Spc. Casey Sheehan, Mrs. Sheehan's son, was a soldier by choice and by the strength of his character. I did not have the honor of knowing him, but I have read that he attended community college for three years and then chose to join the Army. In August 2003, five months into Operation Iraqi Freedom and after three years of service, Casey Sheehan re-enlisted in the Army with the full knowledge there was a war going on, and with the high probability he would be assigned to a combat area. Mrs. Sheehan frequently speaks of her son in religious terms, even saying that she thought that some day Casey would be a priest. Like so many of the individuals who have given their lives in service to our country, Casey was a very special young man. How do you decry that which someone has chosen to do with his life? How does a mother dishonor the sacrifice of her own son?

Cindy Sheehan does not seem a bad person. I tremble to think what might happen to me if I lost one of my sons. I tremble in part from concern that I might thereby become as uncentered as Mrs. Sheehan has become - and as a consequence dishonor my son's memory as she dishonors her son's memory.

And above all I pray that if what befell Mrs. Sheehan's son should ever befall mine, at least I not be goaded to further grief-drenched flailings by a crowd of smirking, cannibalistic politicians such as John Conyers and Maxine Waters, and opportunistic media thugs including Maureen Dowd, who have done such disservice to Cindy Sheehan.

UPDATE: David Gelernter:

The news media have done Cindy Sheehan no favor. They only let a grief-stricken mother embarrass herself; it has been painful to watch.