[Vision2020] speaking of Cindy -- LMT Editorial, Feb 2

[Area Man]

Cindy Sheehan takes her crusade around the bend -- Jim Fisher

Liberals cheered Cindy Sheehan as the heartbroken mother of a soldier
killed in Iraq who helped alert many Americans to President Bush's
mistaken invasion of Iraq and incompetent occupation of a chaotic
country. It is now time for liberals to separate themselves from Cindy
Sheehan the childish mischief-maker and crackpot confidant of dangerous
demagogues. 

Sheehan sabotaged her own credibility prior to her removal by Capitol
Police from the House chamber before she could create a scene at Bush's
State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Her shrill protests in both
Washington, D.C., and Crawford, Texas, are merely tiresome. But her
recent arm-in-arm appearance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and
encouragement of his reckless rhetoric, was irresponsible. 

So, too, was her endorsement of singer Harry Belafonte's denunciation of
Bush as the world's greatest terrorist. 

Chavez, who models himself after Fidel Castro and says he wants to model
Venezuela after Castro's Cuba, is hardly the kind of figure anyone who
hopes to influence politics in the United States should cheer. As
figures from the civilized world met in Davos, Switzerland, last week
for the annual World Economic Forum, Chavez played host to the World
Social Forum in Caracas. That forum, intended to counter the global
cooperation espoused at the Swiss gathering, gave Chavez a grandstand at
which to declare a "world offensive" against capitalism and U.S.
imperialism. 

Sheehan's participation in such an event gave her the trustworthiness
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark enjoys in his role as a
defense attorney for ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Both have
apparently been driven by aversion to this country's political leaders
to embrace extremists on the other side. 

It is lamentable that Sheehan's grief over losing her son has led her to
such a harebrained path. It would be inexcusable for other critics of
Bush's misadventure in Iraq to follow her down it. 

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Hostile banana, Moscow,

DC