I haven’t been paying too much attention to the Cindy Sheehan saga. But, that won’t stop me from writing about it.
While I’m sorry about her loss and I think she has as much right as anyone to express her opinions (no matter how stupid they are), I don’t think the pain she feels for having lost a son who was fighting for the US military in Iraq gives her any special claim on the time of the president nor any authority on the matter that is likely to make her advice more valuable than the average citizen’s (perhaps it should be considered less valuable than average if her loss is so deep as to impede her ability to reason effectively about the subject).
I really don’t see any merit in her appeal for attention because of her sacrifice. Firstly, because it was not her sacrifice (and I’m reminded of the excellent argument about this that I linked to in this post last year). And, secondly, because her son, who actually made the sacrifice, had very different ideas and values than she did about this, and if we want to honor the sacrifice it seems much more sensible to honor his ideas and values than hers.
However, if what she wants is a genuine explanation of the cause her son died for, I think that the message to her from Mohammed at Iraq The Model is an excellent one.
UPDATE: Scrappleface is priceless as usual.