Right-Wing Attacks on the Families of the Dead

Joe Conason is right: the American right-wing overreacted to Cindy Sheehan, and descended to really vile depths to slime her. The reason they did so is that Cindy Sheehan and mothers like her are the Republicans' Achilles Heel:

Whatever Sheehan has said or done, the real problem for the right is her demand that the president address questions for which he and his conservative allies have no convincing answers. He cannot explain the shifting rationale for the war that has cost the lives of Casey Sheehan and thousands of others. He cannot explain why the war was so poorly planned. He cannot explain why he has no plausible exit strategy.

For the right as much as for the left, Sheehan is a symbol. She represents a growing threat to Republicans, who fear that they will pay a heavy electoral price next year for the unjustified and unnecessary bloodshed in Iraq. And that is why, from the beginning, Bush's defenders have tried to change the subject to her supposed mistakes and misstatements. They would far prefer to mock and malign her than to talk about the supposed reasons that her son and so many other innocents are dead.

For reasons that escape me (probably because I blog), I'm on the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal E-Mail alert list. One example of the vile character assassination the Wall Street Journal engaged in was how they forwarded Tom McMahon's denigration of Cindy Sheehan's sacrifice by trying to equate it with light-weight Hollywood preoccupations: Cindy Crawford vs. Cindy Sheehan in Crawford. Get it? Ha, ha!

When I was a kid, growing up in New Mexico, we would often come across insects, but every so often we would dig up a very rare insect called an Earthbaby. Earthbabies were so ugly and ominous-looking that we would wouldn't take the time to smash them like other insects: we would run in fear and loathing. That's what I felt like when I came across this McMahon character. I don't know who he is or what he is: I just know he's an unspeakably-vile Earthbaby, and one MUST run!

The Wall Street Journal also approvingly quotes a blogger named Scott Randolph, who seems to feel that since Iraq is an accomplished, inevitable intervention now, there's nothing anyone can do anything about it, and it's time to just stop complaining about it:

I hate the fact that our boys are getting killed over there, and I wish it didn't have to happen. But, it is, there's nothing we can do about it, except for doing everything we can to offer support and hope to the folks fighting over there. Arguing and whining about the reasons we're there, and the need to come home not only kills morale, but it is a complete waste of time.

Wow! This fatalistic response is SO out-of-character for the Wall Street types to approve! The Masters of the Universe, who are always bloviating about how they make history, not follow it, suddenly have their hands tied! Who could have imagined such impotence?

Before Cindy Sheehan, there was Lila Lipscomb (from Fahrenheit 9/11). After Cindy Sheehan and Lila Lipscomb, there are thousands of relatives who want answers, and who will demand them. I am with them. Are you?