Anti-war position not new
By Diane Barney
Reporter readers have followed the evolution this past year of Vacaville resident Cindy Sheehan from grieving mother to outspoken anti-war protester who today is camped out near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, demanding his resignation.
It is not the same Sheehan family we met in April, still stunned after learning that 24-year-old Army Spc. Casey Sheehan had died in an ambush.
The Sheehans - with 16 other families - met President Bush at Fort Lewis, Wash., where he extended condolences and appreciation for their sacrifice.
At the time, the Sheehans debated whether to be brutally honest with the president. They had serious concerns about the war. But in the end, they told our reporter, they decided to be respectful. President Bush even kissed Cindy Sheehan on the cheek.
Cindy Sheehan said of her first encounter with the president, "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."
But that article, published June 24, 2004, was called into question on Monday following a story in the Drudge Report.
Under the headline, "Protesting soldier mom changed story on Bush," only portions of our story were printed. Left out were the Sheehans' reservations about the war.
The online report claimed Cindy Sheehan "dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander in chief last summer!"
We don't think there has been a dramatic turnaround. Clearly, Cindy Sheehan's outrage was festering even then.
In a press release Monday by the Institute for Public Accuracy, Sheehan explained she was "still in shock" at the time she met with the president.
"We had decided not to criticize the president then because during that meeting he assured us 'this is not political.' And I believed him," Sheehan wrote. "Then, during the Republican National Convention, he exploited those meetings to justify what he was doing."
In ensuing months, she has grown more focused, more determined, more aggressive. She co-founded Gold Star Families For Peace in December 2004, a group which has written numerous letters, articles and posted online reports. She has participated in protests around the country. She and her daughter, Carly, have appeared in anti-war TV messages. And now she's camping out near the president's ranch.
We invite readers to revisit the story - in context - on our Web site and decide for themselves. Stay tuned as it continues to evolve.
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