I have wanted to catalog all of these quotes since this whole fiasco began but time constraints have disallowed me from doing so. While gathering these I got enraged enough to consider adding my own comments but decided not to. I will let the quotes speak for themselves. I have provided a link to the source of each of these quotes so as to provide the context in which they originated. Please let me know if there are any I left out.
From the Horse’s Mouth:
“I look back on it, and I am very, very, very grateful he did not meet with me, because we have sparked and galvanized the peace movement,” Sheehan told The Associated Press. “If he’d met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there.”
Found here.
“While George vacations and bikes and golfs his way to the lowest poll numbers since Richard Nixon, other “patriots” are wrapping themselves in the Stars and Stripes and going along with the farce that the mission from hell – killing more people in Iraq, because so many have already been killed — is somehow a good thing ordained by God.”
Found here.
“I have continually asked George Bush to quit using Casey’s name and the names of the other Gold Star Families for Peace loved ones to justify his continued killing. He continues to say this: “We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission.” So the mission is now this: WE MUST CONTINUE KILLING AMERICANS BECAUSE AMERICANS HAVE ALREADY BEEN KILLED!!!
How can anyone, anyone in their right minds support this line of reasoning? I have been silent on the Gold Star Moms who still support this man and his war by saying that they deserve the right to their opinions because they are in as much pain as I am. I would challenge them, though, at this point to start thinking for themselves. Iraq DID NOT have WMD; Iraq WAS NOT linked to Al Qaeda and 9/11; Iraq WAS NOT a threat or danger to America. How can these moms who still support George Bush and his insane war in Iraq want more innocent blood shed just because their sons or daughters have been killed? I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how any mother could want another mother to feel the pain we feel. I am starting to lose a little compassion for them. I know they have been as brainwashed as the rest of America, but they know the pain and heartache and they should not wish it on another. However, I still feel their pain so acutely and pray for these “continue the murder and mayhem” moms to see the light.”
Found here.
“I came here two and a half weeks ago for one reason, to try and see the president and get an answer to a very simple question: What is the noble cause that he says my son died for? The answer to that question will not bring my son back. But it may stop more meaningless deaths. Because every death is now a meaningless one. And the vast majority of our country knows this. So why do more young men and women have to die? And why do more parents have to lose their children and live the rest of their lives with this unbearable grief?”
…
“This isn’t about politics. It’s about what is good for America and what’s best for our security and how far this president has taken us away from both.”
Found here.
“Bringing our troops home from the quagmire that he has gotten us into will be weakening the United States? George: even if you pretend you didn’t know that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction and Iraq was not threat to the USA before you invaded, Americans know differently. We have read the reports and the Downing Street Memos. We know you had to “fit the intelligence around the policy” of invading Iraq. I want to know what your real reasons were.”
…
“A Democratic Constitution? Is anyone else insulted that he thinks we are stupid and think that the Constitution they will form in Iraq will be democratic and ensure equal rights to all citizens? Does anyone else know what “democratic” means? It simply means majority rule. Not some high-minded, free-floating, pie in the sky ideal. It means 50 percent plus one. Up to 62% of Americans think our troops should be coming home soon. That is a majority, so why don’t we force our employee, the president, to do what we want him to do?”
…
“Another sham election where the country is shut down for the day and no one knows what the heck they are voting for?”
…
“I got a letter from a soldier over in Iraq who says that he feels like an innocent man in prison. All of the soldiers and Marines who contact me say that they were lied to about the “mission.” They were told that they would be rebuilding the country and all they are doing is trying to survive so their moms won’t go through what I am going through.”
…
“First, we were told WMD: false. Then we were told Saddam=Osama: false. Then we were told Saddam was a bad man to his own people and we had to get rid of him: he’s gone. Then we were told the Iraqi people had to have elections: they did. Now we are spreading “freedom and democracy” but we are building 14 permanent bases, some the size of Sacramento, Ca. To me that indicates that we are spreading the cancer of imperialism and usurping THEIR natural resources.”
Found here
“We as mothers need to stop buying into the load of misogynistic crap that our children need our constant presence in their lives so they can thrive and grow. What we need as families are strong support systems that allow each family member to grow and achieve his/her full potential as human beings. What we as Moms need to stop doing is giving our children to the military industrial war complex to be used as human cluster bombs: to kill innocent civilians and to perhaps die enriching and feeding the gluttonous war machine.”
Found here.
“I have been known for some time as a person who speaks the truth and speaks it strongly.”
…
“I just read that I gave 250 interviews in less than a week’s time.”
…
“I got an email the other day and it said, “Cindy if you didn’t use so much profanity… there’s people on the fence that get offended.”
“And you know what I said? “You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?”
“If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out.”
…
“American citizens who oppose the war but never had a conduit for their disgust and dismay are dropping everything and traveling to Crawford to stand in solidarity with us who have made a commitment to sit outside of George’s ranch for the duration of the miserable Texan August.”
…
“One thing I haven’t noticed or become aware of though is an increased number of pro-war, pro-Bush people on the other side of the fence enlisting to go and fight George Bush’s war for imperialism and insatiable greed. The pro-peace side has gotten off their apathetic butts to be warriors for peace and justice. Where are the pro-war people? Everyday at Camp Casey we have a couple of anti-peace people on the other side of the road holding up signs that remind me that “Freedom isn’t Free,” but I don’t see them putting their money where their mouths are. I don’t think they are willing to pay even a small down payment for freedom by sacrificing their own blood or the flesh of their children. I still challenge them to go to Iraq and let another soldier come home. Perhaps a soldier that is on his/her third tour of duty, or one that has been stop-lossed after serving his/her country nobly and selflessly, only to be held hostage in Iraq by power mad hypocrites who have a long history of avoiding putting their own skin in the game.”
…
“I have stood up and said: “My son died for NOTHING, and George Bush and his evil cabal and their reckless policies killed him. My son was sent to fight in a war that had no basis in reality and was killed for it.” I have never said “pretty please” or “thank you.” I have never said anything wishy-washy like he uses “Patriotic Rhetoric.” I say my son died for LIES. George Bush LIED to us and he knew he was LYING. The Downing Street Memos dated 23 July, 2002 prove that he knew that Saddam didn’t have WMDs or any ties to Al Qaeda. I believe that George lied and he knew he was lying. He didn’t use patriotic rhetoric. He lied and made us afraid of ghosts that weren’t there. Now he is using patriotic rhetoric to keep the U.S. military presence in Iraq: Patriotic rhetoric that is based on greed and nothing else.”
…
“Instead of asking George or Scotty McClellan if he will meet with me, why aren’t they asking the questions they should have been asking all along: “Why are our young people fighting, dying, and killing in Iraq? What is this noble cause you are sending our young people to Iraq for? What do you hope to accomplish there? Why did you tell us there were WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda when you knew there weren’t? Why did you lie to us? Why did you lie to the American people? Why did you lie to the world? Why are our nation’s children still in harm’s way and dying everyday when we all know you lied? Why do you continually say we have to “complete the mission” when you know damn well you have no idea what that mission is and you can change it at will like you change your cowboy shirts??”
Found here.
“Another thing is that the Israel thing has not died. I did not say that my son died for Israel. I have never said it, I don’t think it, I don’t believe it. It is just another lie, smear tactic from the right. It needs to die right now. It’s not the truth. I stand by everything that I have said. But I will not stand by things that I haven’t said. I am not anti-Semitic.”
Found here.
“We are doing this to honor Casey and the other fallen heroes in their memories. But we are doing it FOR the people of Iraq and the other soldiers who are in harm’s way right now.”
Found here.
“The CBS reporter whom I met last Saturday when I began this Holy War against the War of Terrorism that George Bush is waging on the world told me that he has interviewed me 4 times this week already. He told me that he has never, ever interviewed anyone 4 times, let alone four times in one week.”
Found here.
“We had a very interesting day. We had Bush drive by really, really fast twice. I caught a glimpse of Laura. I was hoping after she saw me that she would come down to Camp Casey with some brownies and lemonade. I waited for her, but she never came.
The Bushes were going to a barbeque/fundraiser down the road from us. I was very surprised that they let us stay so close to Bush. The families of the fallen loved ones held their son’s crosses from Arlington West while Bush drove by. I bet it didn’t even give him indigestion to see so many people protesting his murderous policies.”
…
I am a continued thorn in the side of right-wing bloggers and right wing-nut “journalists.” One man, Phil Hendry, called me an “ignorant cow.”
Found here.
“Still putting out the O’Reilly fires of me being a traitor and using Casey’s name dishonorably, my in-laws sent out a press statement disagreeing with me in strong terms; which is totally okay with me, because they barely knew Casey. We have always been on separate sides of the fence politically and I have not spoken to them since the election when they supported the man who is responsible for Casey’s death. The thing that matters to me is that our family — Casey’s dad and my other 3 kids are on the same side of the fence that I am.”
Found here.
“It’s ironic, given the attacks leveled at me recently, how some in the media are so quick to scrutinize — and distort — the words and actions of a grieving mother but not the words and actions of the president of the United States.”
…
“There is too much at stake to worry about our own egos. When my son was killed, I had to face the fact that I was somehow also responsible for what happened. Every American that allows this to continue has, to some extent, blood on their hands. Some of us have a little bit, and some of us are soaked in it.”
…
“People have asked what it is I want to say to President Bush. Well, my message is a simple one. He’s said that my son — and the other children we’ve lost — died for a noble cause. I want to find out what that noble cause is. And I want to ask him: “If it’s such a noble cause, have you asked your daughters to enlist? Have you encouraged them to go take the place of soldiers who are on their third tour of duty?” I also want him to stop using my son’s name to justify the war. The idea that we have to “complete the mission” in Iraq to honor Casey’s sacrifice is, to me, a sacrilege to my son’s name. Besides, does the president any longer even know what “the mission” really is over there?
Casey knew that the war was wrong from the beginning. But he felt it was his duty to go, that his buddies were going, and that he had no choice. The people who send our young, honorable, brave soldiers to die in this war, have no skin in the game. They don’t have any loved ones in harm’s way. As for people like O’Reilly and Hannity and Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh and all the others who are attacking me and parroting the administration line that we must complete the mission there — they don’t have one thing at stake. They don’t suffer through sleepless nights worrying about their loved ones”
Found here.
“We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush!”
…
“They’re a bunch of fucking hypocrites! And we need to, we just need to rise up…”
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“If George Bush believes his rhetoric and his bullshit, that this is a war for freedom and democracy, that he is spreading freedom and democracy, does he think every person he kills makes Iraq more free?”
…
“The whole world is damaged. Our humanity is damaged. If he thinks that it’s so important for Iraq to have a U.S.-imposed sense of freedom and democracy, then he needs to sign up his two little party-animal girls. They need to go to this war.”
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“We want our country back and, if we have to impeach everybody from George Bush down to the person who picks up dog shit in Washington, we will impeach all those people.”
Found here.
“You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism,”
…
“My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don’t owe you a penny…you give my son back and I’ll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we’ll put this war on trial.”
…
“And now I’m going to use another ‘I’ word – impeachment – because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail.”
Found here.
“Casey was killed by insurgents. He wasn’t killed by terrorists,” she said. “He was killed by Shiite militia who wanted him out of the country, when Casey was told he was going to be welcomed with chocolate and flowers as a liberator. Well, the people of Iraq saw it differently. They saw him as an occupier.”
Found here.
“And I am going to make sure that after our troops are brought home from Iraq, and they will be brought back, that we’re going to keep the Camp Casey movement going and we’re gonna make sure that our kids are never sent to fight a war for power and greed.”
…
“The hardest thing for me to hear, I don’t care about them talking about me being a crackpot or a media whore, or a tool of the left, you know. I’m like if I truly was a media whore do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on? That doesn’t bother me at all, but what bothers me so much is when they say I am dishonoring my son’s memory by what I’m doing, that my son would be ashamed of me or what they really like to say is that I’m pissing, or shitting, or spitting on his grave.”
…
“He thought he was giving something back to his country and community, also having been lied to by his recruiter. So, then for my boy to be killed in a war — I don’t know if you moms did the same thing, but when I would nurse him I would promise him I would never let him go to war, you know, and I broke that promise to him.”
…
“So this is the boy who they say I’m dishonoring by what I do and I know when I get up with Casey, like he went there first before me. When I get up, he’s gonna say, “Good job Mom.” He’s not going to say, he’s not going to say, “Why’d you make me spin in my grave,” you know. And I can just hear him saying “George Bush you are really an idiot. You didn’t know what you were doing when you killed me. You didn’t know what you were getting into.” And I’m sure Casey’s up there with Ken and all the others and they’re just going, “Wow, did these guys have moms? They didn’t know that this was going to happen when they killed us?”
…
“And you know when this is going to stop? This is going to stop when the mothers say, “No, I’m not giving my son, I’m not giving my son to you so you can kill him to line your pockets,” and that’s when it’s going to stop.”
…
“So, thank you Casey and thank you Ken and thank you all the others, and I know that they are in heaven and I know that that’s why this movement is growing because we have tens of thousands of angels behind us that are supporting us, that are saying, “Well you know we died and that was really crappy, but we hope that our deaths are going to make the world a better place,” and it’s up to us to make sure that it does. Thank you.”
Found here.
“No, because it’s not true,” Sheehan replied. “You know Iraq was no threat to the United States of America until we invaded. I mean they’re not even a threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not involved in 9-11, Iraq was not a terrorist state. But now that we have decimated the country, the borders are open, freedom fighters from other countries are going in, and they [American troops] have created more terrorism by going to an Islamic country, devastating the country and killing innocent people in that country. The terrorism is growing and people who never thought of being car bombers or suicide bombers are now doing it because they want the United States of America out of their country.”
…
“It’s a monstrosity,” she said. “It was based on lies, and since it was based on lies, why are people still dying every day for lies? That’s what they’re dying for. And as soon as we get them out of the country, the insurgency will go down. They might have a little bit of trouble at first, but you know every Iraqi tells me, ‘We’re a civilization that has been around for thousands of years. We can handle our own problems.’”
…
“If I was thinking straight, which I wasn’t, I never would have allowed a military funeral, and I wouldn’t have buried him in his uniform,” Sheehan said. “I just basically stayed sitting on my couch, crying and drinking for a week.”
Found here.
“We are not waging a war on terror in this country. We’re waging a war of terror. The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush.”
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“I know that we’re in a war and I know that George Bush and his band of neo-cons and their neo-con agenda killed my son.”
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“I take responsibility partly for my son’s death, too. I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people, like my sister over here says, since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bullshit to my son and my son enlisted. I’m going all over the country telling moms: “This country is not worth dying for. If we’re attacked, we would all go out. We’d all take whatever we had. I’d take my rolling pin and I’d beat the attackers over the head with it. But we were not attacked by Iraq. {applause} We might not even have been attacked by Osama bin Laden if {applause}. 9/11 was their Pearl Harbor to get their neo-con agenda through and, if I would have known that before my son was killed, I would have taken him to Canada. I would never have let him go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have. The people are good, the system is morally repugnant.”
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“When Congress gave George Bush the right to go to war, they abrogated their constitutional responsibilities and they basically made our constitution null and void. We have no checks and balances in this country.”
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“We want our country back and, if we have to impeach everybody from George Bush down to the person who picks up dog shit in Washington, we will impeach all those people. Our country needs to {unintelligible} we need to start over again.”
…
“What they’re saying, too, is like, it’s okay for Israel to have nuclear weapons. But Iran or Syria better not get nuclear weapons. It’s okay for the United States to have nuclear weapons. It’s okay for the countries that we say it’s okay for. We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now. It’s okay for them to have them, but Iran or Syria can’t have them. It’s okay for Israel to occupy Palestine, but it’s – yeah – and it’s okay for Iraq to occupy – I mean, for the United States to occupy Iraq, but it’s not okay for Syria to be in Lebanon. They’re a bunch of fucking hypocrites! And we need to, we just need to rise up. We need a revolution and make it be peaceful and make it be loving and let’s just show them all the love we have for humanity because we want to stop the inhumane slaughter.”
Found here.
MATTHEWS: Can I ask you a tough question? A very tough question.
SHEEHAN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: All right. If your son had been killed in Afghanistan, would you have a different feeling?
SHEEHAN: I don’t think so, Chris, because I believe that Afghanistan is almost the same thing. We’re fighting terrorism. Or terrorists, we’re saying. But they’re not contained in a country. This is an ideology and not an enemy. And we know that Iraq, Iraq had no terrorism. They were no threat to the United States of America.
MATTHEWS: But Afghanistan was harboring, the Taliban was harboring al-Qaida which is the group that attacked us on 9/11.
SHEEHAN: Well then we should have gone after al-Qaida and maybe not after the country of Afghanistan.
MATTHEWS: But that’s where they were being harbored. That’s where they were headquartered. Shouldn’t we go after their headquarters? Doesn’t that make sense?
SHEEHAN: Well, but there were a lot of innocent people killed in that invasion, too. … But I’m seeing that we’re sending our ground troops in to invade countries where the entire country wasn’t the problem. Especially Iraq. Iraq was no problem. And why do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we’re looking for a select group of people in that country?
So I believe that our troops should be brought home out of both places where we’re obviously not having any success in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and that’s who they told us was responsible for 9/11.
Found here.
Cooper: “Cindy, I was reading some of the essays that you’ve been writing about the war over the last couple of months. In one you say the war is blatant genocide and you go on to say, and I quote, ‘Casey was killed in the global war of terrorism waged on the world and its own citizen by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world, George and his destructive Neo-con cabal.’ Do you really believe the President of the United States is the biggest terrorist in the world?”
Sheehan: “I believe that he’s responsible for the needless and senseless deaths of more people than any other organization right now. There was 3,000 people killed on September 11th, which was a tragic day. Our nation still mourned it. I still mourn for those people and their families. But tens of thousands of innocent people are dead in Iraq, Anderson, and there was no reason for the war. The war was based on lies and we know that now.”
Cooper: “But when you say that the President, I mean you’re essentially saying the President is a terrorist. I mean I think a lot of people would hear that and think what are you talking about?”
Sheehan: “Well, you know, I’ve heard a lot of — a lot of definitions of that and it’s the definition they kill innocent people, you know, and his policies are responsible for killing innocent people and I say the organization is killing innocent people and it needs to stop. We know that he said there was weapons of mass destruction and we know he knows that there weren’t. There was no link between al Qaeda and Saddam and we know he knows that there wasn’t, so we need to stop the killing now and I’m here to confront him.”
Cooper: “You said that it’s blatant genocide. I mean you really think the United States is trying to eliminate an entire group of people, all Iraqis?”
Sheehan: “There’s 100, there’s an estimate 100,000 to 200,000 innocent Iraqis dead because of our occupation, either by bullets and bombs or by disease, malnutrition and he says we’re doing it for the Iraqi people. How many do we have to kill before we convince them that what we’re doing is right over there?”
Found here.
“Am I emotional? Yes, my first-born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full well that my son, my family, this nation, and this world were betrayed by a George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agenda after 9/11. We were told that we were attacked on 9/11 because the terrorists hate our freedoms and democracy…not for the real reason, because the Arab-Muslims who attacked us hate our middle-eastern foreign policy. That hasn’t changed since America invaded and occupied Iraq…in fact it has gotten worse.”
Found here.
“‘I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,’ Cindy said after their meeting. ‘I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.’
“The meeting didn’t last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son’s sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.
“The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.
“For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.
“‘That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,’ Cindy said.”
Found here.
PROTESTING SOLDIER MOM CHANGED STORY ON BUSH
Mon Aug 08 2005 10:11:07 ET
The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush’s ranch—has dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander-in-chief last summer!
Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who last year praised Bush for bringing her family the “gift of happiness,” took to the nation’s TV outlets this weekend to declare how Bush “killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity.”
CINDY 2004
THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan’s visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004:
“‘I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,’ Cindy said after their meeting. ‘I know he’s sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith.’
“The meeting didn’t last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son’s sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.
“The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.
“For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.
For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.
“‘That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,’ Cindy said.”
CINDY 2005
Sheehan’s current comments are a striking departure.
She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: “Why did you kill my son?”
In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush “acted like it was party” when she met him last year.
“It was—you know, there was a lot of things said. We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity. And we wanted him to look at the pictures of Casey.
“He wouldn’t look at the pictures of Casey. He didn’t even know Casey’s name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, ‘So who are we honoring here?’ He didn’t even know Casey’s name. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn’t even call him ‘him’ or ‘he.’ He called him ‘your loved one.’
Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party.
BLITZER: Like a party? I mean…
SHEEHAN: Yes, he came in very jovial, and like we should be happy that he, our son, died for his misguided policies. He didn’t even pretend like somebody…
END
On her current media tour, Sheehan has not been asked to explain her twist on Bush; from praise to damnation!
Found here.
I would like to give a hat tip to Moorewatch.com and The Jawa Report for inspiring me to do all of this.