The truth about Cindy Sheehan

"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."

"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...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."

"I just want to say that you students, Students Against War, you have all my support and all my organization’s support. I told Kristen if you have any actions and you need a ringleader, that I only live about an hour away. I’ll be here. If I can sleep on somebody’s floor, we can have this, we can camp out, do whatever we need."

"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 this war. They need to fight because a just war, the definition of a just war, and maybe you people here who still think this is a just war, the definition of a just war is one that you would send your own children to die in. That you would go die in yourself."

"We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now."

These are all Cindy Sheehan's own words. They aren't "swiftboating." They are not a smear. She spoke these words at a rally in defense of leftist lawyer Lynne Stewart at the Universtiy of San Fransisco. She has also accused George W. Bush of murdering her son.

This is the United States of America, and Cindy Sheehan has the right to condemn Bush or praise him or anything in between. But if she chooses to make herself a public figure, she should also accept the scrutiny that comes with it.

The left would like to paint Ms. Sheehan as every mom, and there's compelling case to be made there. There aren't hard statistics, but anecdotal evidence points to a 75% divorce rate for parents whose child dies. There is no glee to be held at her divorce. It is not part of the story. And those who try to make it so weaken their cause. Her comments speak for themselves.

Cindy Sheehan is not the graceful, dignified woman of quiet conviction that she is portrayed as. She is a left-wing ideologue, and a rather radical one at that. That's okay. We have the right to do that in this country. If she wants to camp outside President Bush's ranch, God bless her. But let's not pretend that she is something that she is not. And let's also not pretend that she has some special deferrment that renders her immune to valid criticism.