Personally, I would never make the choice to enter the military. However, many thousands of individuals have voluntarily chosen to serve our country in this capacity, and based on my own experiences, they all share a powerful commonality. The thread that binds these people is that they feel very strongly about the stated goals of the military as well as the actions required to accomplish these goals. On more than one occasion, I’ve heard members speak with a certain tone of honor in their voice regarding time they spent in Iraq or on other military initiatives. While I personally may sit back and disagree with the operation as a whole, I cannot disagree with or question the conviction of these individuals.

Why do I mention all this? Cindy Sheehan’s son was one of these individuals. Based on the history and socio-economic status of the Sheehan family (as well as Cindy’s subsequent actions), I feel as though I can get a pretty good bead on Cindy’s character and her emotions regarding her son’s enrollment in the military. First, I think that she *absolutely* disagreed with her son’s decision from the onset. Further, I think that her disagreement manifested itself in the form of fear - she feared (and obviously rightly so) that harm may come to her son as a result of his military involvement. Second, I believe that after her son’s death, she adopted this attitude of “I *knew* it!” The resulting anti-Bush, anti-Iraq rampage was merely the result of her feeling both jilted and shortchanged thanks to her son’s decision to join a cause that she simply did not support.

Frankly, I think it’s embarrassingly selfish of Mrs. Sheehan to react in this way, and I am dismayed that the media ate it up like they did. Then again, that type of thing is to be expected when these outlets are so predominantly leftist by nature. Regardless, I encourage those of you who would rush to support Cindy Sheehan simply because you disagree with Bush, Iraq, or likely both, to rethink your position. I, for one, feel confident that Cindy’s son would be embarrassed and angered at his mother’s actions. Simply put, I think it’s sad that she refused to support her son in life, and it’s just that much worse that she refused to support him in death. I appreciate her son’s commitment to this country, and I also appreciate the work that our military does - regardless of whether or not I agree with the specific initiatives.

Of course it was a good faith belief. I’m sure that capitol police are confused about the laws pertaining to demonstrating at the capitol since that rarely ever happens. So, it was an “old unwritten interpretation”? Translation: They made it up.