Letter To Bush From A Broken Hearted Mother

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

MrsSpringsteen

Blue Crack Addict
Joined
Nov 30, 2002
Messages
29,276
Location
Edge's beanie closet
I really questioned whether to post this, maybe it will turn out that I shouldn't have. I just think it's important to hear the views of those most impacted by this war.

The overwhelming feeling I got when I read it was the grief that this woman is suffering, and also her pride in her son. I think her anger is understandable, whether you agree politically w/ what she says or not. I could never truly understand it of course, because I haven't lost anyone in this war or any other.

November 4, 2004

Dear George,

You don't mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first name basis.

George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero, my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child. It has been two days since your dishonest campaign stole another election but you all were way more subtle this time than in 2000, weren't you? You hardly had to get the Supreme Court of the United States involved at all this week.

You feel so proud of yourself for betraying the country again, don't you? You think you are very clever because you pulled the wool over the eyes of some of the people again. You think that you have some mandate from God that you can spend your political capital any way that you want. George you don't care or even realize that 56,000,000 plus citizens of this country voted against you and your agenda. Still, you are going to continue your ruthless work of being a divider and not a uniter. George, in 2000 when you stole that election and the Democrats gave up, I gave up too. I had the most ironic thought of my life then: "Oh well, how much damage can he do in four years?" Well, now I know how much you have damaged my family, this country, and this world. If you think I am going to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you truly are mistaken. I will fight for a true vote count and if that fails, your impeachment. Also, the impeachment of your Vice President. The only thing is, I'm not politically savvy, and I don't have a Karl Rove to plan my strategy, but I do have a big mouth and a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope.

All of this lying, fooling, and betraying must be hard work George. You really think you know what hard work is?

George, let me tell you what hard work really is.

Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable man-child go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality. Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep for 2 weeks because you don't know if your child is safe.

Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again.

Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son your first born¦ your kind and gentle sweet baby.

Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big brother into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both.

But, Dear George, do you know what the hardest work of all is? Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed your dear boy's sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you after they killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son's future and future grand-children stolen from you. Hard work is knowing that there are so many people in this world that have prospered handsomely from your son's death.

George, I must confess that I and my family worked very HARD to re-defeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people into a disastrous war and for mis-using and abusing your power as Commander-in-Chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that you have gotten our country in to: before too many more families learn the true meaning of Hard Work. We know it is going to be an uphill battle, knowing how Republican Congress is, but thanks to you, we know the meaning of Hard Work and we're not afraid of hard work at all.

The 56,000,000 plus citizens who voted against you and your agenda have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this will be my full-time job. Being your political downfall will be the most noble accomplishment of my life and it will bring justice for my son and 1125 (so far) other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis your lies have killed. By the way, George, how many more innocent Iraqis are your policies going to kill before you convince them that you are better than Saddam? How many more of their cities are you going to level before you consider that they are liberated? If you really had any moral values, or if you were an honorable man at all you would resign. My son was a man who had high moral values and true courage. Humanity lost a bright light on April 04, 2004. I will live the rest of my life missing Casey desperately. Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day.


God Bless America!! We surely need it!

Cindy Sheehan

Broken hearted mother of a True American Hero: Spc Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA 04/04/04 Sadr City, Baghdad
 
About the meanest letter imaginable, but under her circumstance, I certainly understand why she's upset. :(
 
I feel sorry for her loss and am grateful of her sons sacrifice. But, this woman's a loony. This letter wasn't written immediately after his death, it was 7 months after so the woman had a long time to think about it. She throws out these conspiracy theories, which don't help her cause. I just want to know what her son really thought of the war...I mean, he signed up of his own free will and was possibly very proud that he might be doing something to be proud of. Talk about demeaning her sons sacrifice. She would find much more peace of mind if she opened her mind a bit to see the good that her son might have helped to accomplish in Iraq(Women's rights, free elections..ect).
 
Last edited:
ImOuttaControl said:
I feel sorry for her loss and am grateful of her sons sacrifice. But, this woman's a loony. This letter wasn't written immediately after his death, it was 7 months after so the woman had a long time to think about it. She throws out these conspiracy theories, which don't help her cause. I just want to know what her son really thought of the war...I mean, he signed up of his own free will and was possibly very proud that he might be doing something to be proud of. Talk about demeaning her sons sacrifice. She would find much more peace of mind if she opened her mind a bit to see the good that her son might have helped to accomplish in Iraq(Women's rights, free elections..ect).
In a sense, I do agree. I'm sure she loved her son as much as anyone else, but her anger is so political. I'm glad Mrs. Springsteen posted this letter. I would hate to be this mother, and I would try to empathize with anyone in her situation. May she find peace, even though many people don't just get over the loss of their sons/daughters overnight, or ever. I have to understand that, we all do.
 
ImOuttaControl said:
I mean, he signed up of his own free will and was possibly very proud that he might be doing something to be proud of. Talk about demeaning her sons sacrifice. She would find much more peace of mind if she opened her mind a bit to see the good that her son might have helped to accomplish in Iraq(Women's rights, free elections..ect).

Who are you to judge if she's demeaning her son's sacrifice or not. One can argue that she's his mother and probably has a better insight to what his experience was than someone who's at it from a completely partisan manner. Unless you've talked to him and knew where he stood on this war I'd leave it up to those who knew him. So maybe if you opened you mind a little.
 
Well I don't know who else I could expect her to be angry at, W seems like a logical choice to me. I have read the viewpoints of many parents who feel that way about Bush, and many who feel opposite and support him and his policy in Iraq, even if they've lost a son or daughter. I don't see her as demeaning her son in any way, shape, or form. This letter certainly doesn't tell the whole story of her life or her son's life or what he accomplished in Iraq, so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about any of that.

No offense to anyone, but I would never judge her unless I had walked a mile in her shoes.
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
No offense to anyone, but I would never judge her unless I had walked a mile in her shoes.
I happen to agree with that completely. On another level, should we judge Bush?
 
people who's sons and daughters have died have political beliefs also... there are plenty more parents of soldiers who have died who support bush with all their heart... it shouldn't be a competition. god bless all of them... and on this day of thanks we should be thankful for their sacrafice, because their sacrafice is for every american citizen.
 
Yes. Since the troops are the ones in harm's way, we should let them know that we appreciate their service, even if we don't care for what the government is doing. I still think we should have a little faith in our leaders, even if we don't agree with their policies.
 
I have faith that he is making decisions that he thinks to be the best for the country. I do not think he is the evil villan that he is portrayed in this forum.
 
najeena said:
Should I have faith in someone who's policies I disagree with and who I distrust, just because he's the president?
I can easily understand that he's far from a perfect human being. There's things I don't agree with him on either, such as capital punishment and using God's name to justify the war. However, we should have faith in our leaders. The bipartisanship has to exist if we should remain a united country. One way we can compromise is to have faith in our leaders even if we don't always agree with them.
 
If you don't mind a double post, you know who else said that we should have faith in our leaders? Michael Moore did.

Source: Entertainment Weekly
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


Who are you to judge if she's demeaning her son's sacrifice or not. One can argue that she's his mother and probably has a better insight to what his experience was than someone who's at it from a completely partisan manner. Unless you've talked to him and knew where he stood on this war I'd leave it up to those who knew him. So maybe if you opened you mind a little.

Who am I to judge? Maybe she(the mother) doesn't know jack shit about what her son felt about the war and about the things the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Iraq? No offense, but mothers aren't generally the best for "insight to what his experience was." Mothers, as I know from experience, judge from an emotional standpoint. I served in Iraq for a year(got back in June) and my mother really didn't know what I was doing there...she just knew she wanted me home and well.

"So maybe if you opened you mind a little"....well, maybe open your mind to the fact that maybe this mother is using her sons death in a way her son might not approve of. Like I said before: if she wasn't using conspiracy theories and partisan B.S. to try to make her point, I might take it a bit more seriously. Is there PROOF her son disapproved of the war and felt that if he died he would have died for nothing????
 
Last edited:
ImOuttaControl said:


Who am I to judge? Maybe she(the mother) doesn't know jack shit about what her son felt about the war and about the things the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Iraq? No offense, but mothers aren't generally the best for "insight to what his experience was." Mothers, as I know from experience, judge from an emotional standpoint. I served in Iraq for a year(got back in June) and my mother really didn't know what I was doing there...she just knew she wanted me home and well.

"So maybe if you opened you mind a little"....well, maybe open your mind to the fact that maybe this mother is using her sons death in a way her son might not approve of. Like I said before: if she wasn't using conspiracy theories and partisan B.S. to try to make her point, I might take it a bit more seriously. Is there PROOF her son disapproved of the war and felt that if he died he would have died for nothing????

You have no idea what conversations went on between mother and son. Believe it on not there are soldiers fighting in Iraq who don't believe in this war. So it sounds like you're the emotional and partisan one. We know where you stand, but you don't know where the son stood, so until you know for sure don't speak or judge on his behalf because it's just sickening.
 
Of course you have faith in something. I find it rather ironic that Michael Moore said something I actually agree with, and something that quite a few liberals don't.
 
I do not put blind faith in any power, there must always be scrutiny. I see Iraq moving towards elections, a honeypot for terrorism which is a mixed bag and gradually constructing (it would be wrong to say reconstructing because the infrastructure didn't exist in most of these places to begin with). I do not see the doom and gloom that was predicted before the war - most may disagree and that is fine, history will be the judge and we should all hope that Iraq becomes a stable and free democratic state.
 
And I have a hope that it will all work out. I don't expect to see perfection, or everyone to be civilized, but I can hope that we can make peace in a country that was torn by division and a brutal regime.
 
ImOuttaControl said:
I feel sorry for her loss and am grateful of her sons sacrifice. But, this woman's a loony. This letter wasn't written immediately after his death, it was 7 months after so the woman had a long time to think about it. She throws out these conspiracy theories, which don't help her cause. I just want to know what her son really thought of the war...I mean, he signed up of his own free will and was possibly very proud that he might be doing something to be proud of. Talk about demeaning her sons sacrifice. She would find much more peace of mind if she opened her mind a bit to see the good that her son might have helped to accomplish in Iraq(Women's rights, free elections..ect).

Agreed.
 
I want to hear from someone who has had the terrible misfortune of having lost someone close and dear to them, like a son, speak in favour of this war.

Ant.
 
Back
Top Bottom