Cindy Sheehan and the Anti-war Movement
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Live from Crawford, Texas, a mother's protest, a battle on the home front over the war in Iraq. It is 7:00 p.m. on the east coast, 4:00 p.m. in the west, and 6:00 p.m. here in Crawford, Texas. This special edition of 360 starts now.</s>ANNOUNCER: It started out as a grieving mom on a lawn chair demanding to see the president. Now, Cindy Sheehan's speaking for the nation's anti-war movement. Tonight, we're live from Crawford, Texas, with Cindy Sheehan. She lost her son to war. But so have thousands of other parents across the country who are still standing by the president. Tonight, a 360 look at how other military parents are mourning their fallen children. What's a president to do when faced with a mother who lost her son in battle? Tonight, should the president have a second meeting with Cindy Sheehan? And reality Iraq. How do the soldiers putting their lives on the line feel about Sheehan's protest and then facing the enemy every day? Live from Crawford, Texas, this is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, "Crossroads: Battle on the Home Front."</s>COOPER: Good evening from the small town of Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is on vacation. The last several days, this tiny town in the heart of Texas has become the most visible front line in a nationwide battle over the war in Iraq. The war here at home is a war, really, of words, of heart-felt emotions, of anger, and of loss. By now, you know about Cindy Sheehan, the mother who lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. She set up camp waiting to talk to the president. She's not alone. There are reporters, TV trucks, political operatives, and public relations specialists. It is a media circus, some have called it. Let's take a look at what it looks like on a typical day.</s>COOPER (voice-over): Today, another press conference, more questions. Cindy Sheehan's protest continues.</s>CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: This is the way I can honor my son's memory, by standing up and doing what I know is right, too, at whatever it costs me.</s>COOPER: It began just 11 days ago. A solitary mother camped outside the president's Crawford, Texas, vacation home. She vowed to stay until he met with her face-to-face, or until his summer holiday ended.</s>SHEEHAN: I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?</s>COOPER: She wasn't alone for long. Within days, the numbers grew along this Texas roadside. Other parents who had lost sons and daughters to the war, seasoned antiwar protesters, political consultants, P.R. professionals, all made Cindy's cause their own. And, of course, the ever-present media there to cover it all. The story suddenly seemed to transcend Cindy Sheehan.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cindy Sheehan...</s>CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, MSNBC: Cindy Sheehan.</s>BILL O'REILLY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this and also for the responsibility of other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.</s>COOPER: In these 11 days, Cindy Sheehan has gone from protester to public figure. According to Video Monitoring Service, her name has been mentioned 20,585 times in television news broadcasts. She's even starred in a local TV ad.</s>SHEEHAN: How many more soldiers have to die before we say, "Enough"?</s>COOPER: Some of the president's Crawford neighbors are fed up with the noise, the cameras that are now crowding country roads. Some have staged protests. On Sunday, one landowner fired a shotgun in the air. And on Monday, another man was arrested for mowing down wooden crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers with his pickup truck.</s>COOPER: There are so many opinions in the debate going on across the nation, so many thoughts about what Cindy Sheehan is doing here. Over the next hour, we're going to cover the story from all the angles, from all around the country, a full and fair report. The battle on the home front, a battle reignited when one mother came to Crawford and demanded to speak to the president. That mother, of course, was Cindy Sheehan. She's now just holding a vigil. She's holding court to the media. Every day, Sheehan gives interviews and meets with supporters and helpers who make sure her message is received loud and clear. Some call her a savvy political radical and a pawn for the left. Others say she's simply making a stand and deserves the help she's getting to get her message out. CNN's Dana Bash was with Sheehan before at dawn today and tried to keep up with her.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 5:45 a.m., pitch black, you can barely make out the trailer where Cindy Sheehan sleeps. But she's up. So is Michelle, the P.R. rep hired to coordinate her media push.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... like ten different stations. Part of why we agreed to do it early is at least it covers a few things.</s>BASH: Sheehan's schedule is scratched on a piece of notebook paper. Her office, a lawn chair on a dark Crawford field. The simple look belies a sophisticated effort to maximize what she calls her 15 minutes of fame. Morning drive radio, Seattle.</s>SHEEHAN: I'm waiting for the president to come out and talk to me.</s>BASH: D.C...</s>SHEEHAN: ... the war has got back on the front page of the news where it belongs.</s>BASH: Buffalo...</s>SHEEHAN: I'm not being financially underwritten by anybody.</s>BASH: Over and over, she's asked whether liberal groups now helping her, like anti-Bush Moveon.org, are diluting sympathy for a grieving mother's cause.</s>SHEEHAN: Nothing is happening that's not aligned with the vision or the mission.</s>BASH: The sun's finally up, shower time at Crawford's Peace House, a liberal meeting place now coordinating Cindy's vigil. She logs in to read some of 1,500 e-mails and checks out one of many boxes sent by strangers, supplies and some roses. Then off to the demonstration site, a five-mile drive towards the Bush ranch she's taken several times a day for nearly two weeks.</s>BASH (on-screen): Do you really think there's any chance at this point that he's actually going to come and meet with you?</s>SHEEHAN: Well, nothing's impossible. The movement has taken hold. And it's going to go on with or without me, or with or without a meeting with George Bush.</s>BASH (voice-over): Here, Cindy does a lot of meeting and greeting.</s>SHEEHAN: Where are you from?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from -- well, now, I'm from Figussa Springs (ph), Colorado.</s>BASH: Unsolicited offers to help, the ACLU this time. She declines.</s>SHEEHAN: Well, they've been really good about letting us express our First Amendment rights.</s>BASH: Thinner crowds. Only 30 or so people now, but she's savvy. (on-screen): Behind me is something that happens every day. Cindy Sheehan holds a press conference at 10:30 in the morning to announce something or react to something. It's a primary tactic in her efforts to keep momentum of her story going. (voice-over): So are the interviews around the world.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how long are you intending being here for?</s>BASH: The BBC, Mexican television.</s>SHEEHAN: ... memories of our fallen heroes.</s>BASH: It's a typical day and a pace she is determined to keep up until the president leaves. And a movement she hopes is even longer.</s>COOPER: Critics of Sheehan have made a lot of the fact that she's backed by Moveon.org, in one case by Ben Cohen, whose paid some of the expenses of a P.R. firm. Who is backing Cindy Sheehan?</s>BASH: Well, you just really named two of the biggest groups, if you will, that are behind her. And it's interesting to note that they actually weren't behind her before she came here. She really did come here as a grieving mother in a lawn chair with her sister. And it was when the groups realized that she was here, realized that she was getting a little bit of attention, that they sort of jumped in and decided to help her. As a matter of fact, Ben Cohen's, it's called True Majority, they told me that they essentially have written a blank check to the P.R. firm that's helping her. They say they send us a bill, we'll pay it.</s>COOPER: And that's raise suspicions among a lot of conservatives, especially when we talk to some of them a little bit later on tonight. Dana Bash, thanks very much for that. There are, of course, mothers all across the country whose sons and daughters were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They, too, mourn the losses of their children. Unlike Sheehan, many of them support the war in Iraq still and they still stand by the president. Tonight, CNN's Gary Tuchman with other mothers, other perspectives.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joshua Lucero was the oldest of seven children. The 19-year-old from Arizona was killed in an explosion west of Baghdad. Joshua's mother, like Cindy Sheehan, is devastated. Unlike Cindy Sheehan, Tina Lucero believes the president needs to stay the course.</s>TINA LUCERO, LOST SON IN IRAQ: She's handling it wrong and that her anger's toward our president. And that is something that's just bothered me.</s>TUCHMAN: As servicemen and women die, and as time goes by, parents' opinions about the war sometimes change day-to-day. Some grieving mothers don't know what to think. What they share is immense pride in their children.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me, he was my baby, my baby boy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had already told him he was a hero, and he was brave, and what a wonderful husband he was.</s>TUCHMAN (on-screen): What would you like people to remember about him?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, how brave he was and what a great person to serve our country, and that he was there and he believed in it.</s>TUCHMAN (voice-over): But there are many who believe Cindy Sheehan's viewpoint doesn't serve her son, Casey's, legacy well. One such person is the mother of slain serviceman Justin Johnson.</s>JAN JOHNSON, LOST SON IN IRAQ: I believe that we should stay the course. We need to be there. To me, in a way, she's disgracing Casey, because Casey was over there trying to serve his country and help the Iraqi people.</s>TUCHMAN: Their children were committed to the cause. That's why many of these parents say they need to be, too.</s>LUCERO: I feel that my son had a job to do, and he did it very well. And it was unfortunate that it came to this, but it was his decision going to Iraq, you know, joining the military.</s>TUCHMAN: The views differ. The heartache, though, is most similar. Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.</s>COOPER: So many mothers, so many fathers, so many brothers and sisters, so much loss. Coming up next on this special of 360, my one- on-one interview with Cindy Sheehan. We're going to cover a lot of ground, including some controversial remarks that she has reportedly made in the past. I'll ask her about them. Plus, Sheehan now says the president was cold when they met in private. Other mothers tell a different story. We're going to take a look at what happens when the president meets with the families of troops killed in Iraq. And a little later, Vietnam protests from the past. Now emotions are growing once again, this time over the war in Iraq. Are we approaching a tipping point? This special edition continues.