A Letter To Cindy Sheehan

Dear Cindy,

I have a friend who was killed in Iraq, and I also have a small son and I can imagine the devastation you must feel after losing your son.

However, like your son I am also a person who has stood up to take the oath and enlisted into our nation's military, and like your son I did it of my own free will.

From reading some of your interviews, it is clear that your son made a choice, albeit a choice you disagreed with. The choice was your son's to make, not yours. Your son made another brave choice when he volunteered to go help his brothers in arms who were in need of rescue. His death was noble, because he truly gave his life for his fellow soldiers.

Please don't denigrate his sacrifice, or the sacrifice of my friend. Both of these men were among the best our country has, and their lives were taken not by George Bush but by the bastards who have raped Iraq for decades but for brave men like my friend and your son.

Can't you see that the course you champion, cutting and running, only renders the sacrifices made by our troops a waste? Can't you not also see that, by finishing what has been started... and we are winning this brutal war... these men will have bought something worthwhile with their sacrifice? They will have brought democracy to the birthplace of human civilization for the first time in history. They will have dealt a crushing blow to al Quaida and its minions. They will have made our country and our world safer. They will have shown ordinary Arabs that peace and freedom are possible, and that despair that leads to terrorism is not the path to follow. They are the ones who have risked it all in an attempt to make the world a better place, and they paid the price.

You've met with George Bush once. Do you really think you're going to change his mind, or my mind, or anyone's mind? Of course not... so what's the point? Do you think that your son, if he were still alive, would be embarassed or proud of your actions? Do you not see the harm your actions have done to your family?

You've said your piece. We've heard you. Now, please go home, for your family's sake, and for the sake of your son's memory.

Casey Sheehan deserves to be remembered for his bravery, not your protests.