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“If George Bush was/is a war criminal; then Obama is a war criminal. If Obama is not, then Bush is not. We the people cannot have it both ways.” Cindy Sheehan, Martha's Vineyard
Cindy Sheehan

Through many difficulties we faced on Martha's Vineyard, (the sad passing of Senator Kennedy, Tropical Storm Danny---and even getting my wallet stolen) last week, a hearty band of about a two dozen of us, from off the island and on, tried our damndest to revive some kind of anti-war sentiment in this nation.

The media wanted to make it a story about the media: about how Crawford was such a big story and how Martha's Vineyard is not. I don't think that was the story, though.

Even though, we received endorsements from three of the most effective national anti-war groups; Veterans for Peace, Iraq Vets Against the War and World Can't Wait and about a dozen others from smaller groups, but the large groups that supported the anti-Bush, anti-war message of the Camp Casey in Crawford were MIA physically and spiritually from the actions in Martha's Vineyard.

The New York Times ran an article on Sunday claiming that after a long period of dormancy, the “anti-war” movement was getting “restive” and planned to do some actions in October around the 8th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Well, some of us have been restive and working for years and the groups that are now becoming “restive' are the very ones that let the War Genie out of the bottle, and will have a lot of problems putting it back in, if that is really the intention of these groups.

The “restive anti-war movement” is planning “teach-ins” and “memorials” but not planning on surrounding the White House and demanding that their leader bring the troops home from all theaters of war and then threatening to withhold support if he doesn't. The “restive anti-war movement” will not do anything it thinks will compromise Democratic chances in the 2010 midterms.

I have two questions to ask of the “restive anti-war movement.”

1) How did the people of Iraq/Afghanistan lose value as human beings when the Democrats took over power in 2007?

2) How did the people of Pakistan lose their value as humans when Obama became president at the beginning of the year?

The born-again “restive anti-war movement” allowed the Democratic Party to suck the wind out of our sails in 2007 and it is almost like we will have to start from scratch.

“Give Him a chance,” they say.

“He's better than McCain,” they say.

“If you question Him then you're a racist,” they say.

I say “go to Iraq-Af-Pak and tell these things to the people who are being drone bombed for simply having the nerve to want to get married.”

Give Him a chance for what? No thanks, keep the change!

Recognizing the fact that the establishment anti-war movement will never organize to be an effective movement against Democrats, no matter how many people are dying, we on the Vineyard last week decided to write an International People's Declaration of Peace which we will promulgate all over the world: raising grass roots support for a true People's driven peace movement, not one driven by foundation funding or partisan politics.

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Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother's Child and Dear President Bush.

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