2008 Woodie Awards
Sheehan's it off
Brebner, Kyle
Issue date: 9/2/05 Section: Forum
People are standing strong around Cindy Sheehan while she waits to speak with President Bush, who continues to refuse to meet with her. What she is doing is wonderful, but she needs more help.
Sheehan and other peace activists from Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, and beyond, have sparked a new, but all too familiar, urgency among Americans to call for a return home of the troops. Meanwhile, according to the August 24 edition of the New York Times, Secretary of "Offense" Donald Rumsfeld just announced plans to send even more American troops to Iraq.
On the August 22 broadcast of Democracy Now!, the main focus was around the Sheehan led protests. One of the speeches broadcasted from Bush's ranch was given by Dante Zappala, whose brother died in Iraq. Many of you may remember that this same man spoke to Guilford students through a cell phone held up to a microphone while organizing last spring for the March 19 peace rally in Fayetteville and then again on stage at the rally. Upon hearing Dante speak again, I suddenly felt a much deeper and more personal connection to these protesters in Texas.
Public disapproval of the war has grown, but Bush and his cronies continue to deny that they lied to the American people and that the reasons for going to war were false. It is widely accepted that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the only justification for invasion. According to the New York Times Bush recently said that, "As long as I'm the president, we will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror." Here he is once again making a connection between 9/11 and Iraq that just simply doesn't exist.
The Bush team also claims that this war is necessary to bring democracy to the Middle East. However, we can't possibly export democracy when it does not even exist at home.
In a democracy, the power belongs to the people. The American people are clearly saying that we want our fellow Americans to stop dying in this unnecessary and unjustified war, but Bush doesn't care, he has his own agenda.
Sheehan and other peace activists from Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, and beyond, have sparked a new, but all too familiar, urgency among Americans to call for a return home of the troops. Meanwhile, according to the August 24 edition of the New York Times, Secretary of "Offense" Donald Rumsfeld just announced plans to send even more American troops to Iraq.
On the August 22 broadcast of Democracy Now!, the main focus was around the Sheehan led protests. One of the speeches broadcasted from Bush's ranch was given by Dante Zappala, whose brother died in Iraq. Many of you may remember that this same man spoke to Guilford students through a cell phone held up to a microphone while organizing last spring for the March 19 peace rally in Fayetteville and then again on stage at the rally. Upon hearing Dante speak again, I suddenly felt a much deeper and more personal connection to these protesters in Texas.
Public disapproval of the war has grown, but Bush and his cronies continue to deny that they lied to the American people and that the reasons for going to war were false. It is widely accepted that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the only justification for invasion. According to the New York Times Bush recently said that, "As long as I'm the president, we will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror." Here he is once again making a connection between 9/11 and Iraq that just simply doesn't exist.
The Bush team also claims that this war is necessary to bring democracy to the Middle East. However, we can't possibly export democracy when it does not even exist at home.
In a democracy, the power belongs to the people. The American people are clearly saying that we want our fellow Americans to stop dying in this unnecessary and unjustified war, but Bush doesn't care, he has his own agenda.
