Cindy Sheehan Speaks: how the anti war movement is asleep under Obama

[awepittance]

 

This is a special 40 minute Media Roots Radio interview conducted by Abby Martin with Cindy Sheehan, mother who has made the ultimate sacrifice and fearless anti-war activist. She relays her powerfully lucid point of view in a candid interview at her home on February 6th, 2011.

 

To learn more about Cindy Sheehan, visit her website at http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com/

 

Listen to last week's episode about Egypt's Revolution: Puppet Dictators, US Response & Coverage, or another episode about Wikileaks, Bradley Manning & False Memory Research.

 

edit: in case you're wondering why i posted this, i am a contributor to mediaroots.org and Abby is my sister. i don't really speak in the interview until the very end, although abby and i wrote the questions together

[Guest Gary C]

Her website is awful. Why should I care?

[awepittance]

if you aren't aware of who she is already this is anywhere from definitely to probably not of interest to you. And if you are asking innocently and not just being a troll, do some research on her, she played a pretty important role circa 2005 in the USA anti war movement.

[Guest Gary C]

Aren't you at war?

[Guest Benedict Cumberbatch]

oh abby is your sister!

[Guest Helper ET]

since the invasion, over 1 million iraqi civilians have been killed

[eugene]

a fact that drastically affected your your weed smoking habits.

[vamos scorcho]

yeah, I've thought about that a bit. the fact that since Obama (dem) is in power, "i mean the guy didn't start the war how should i know dude!," people have seeminly completely fucking blacked out the fact that we're still at war... and going strong, no different, essentially.

 

 

clearly the reason this has happened is because the media doesn't talk about it. people don't debate politics, let's face it, they debate the media. the media is the politics.

 

so don't even fucking try to "protest war!" unless you understand the media thoroughly. the only thing that should be protested at this point is the use and state of television news and media control.

 

fucked up man, so fucked up. but i'm sure with hard work and some luck it could be changed a bit. if we don't want taxes spent on what we believe to be a bullshit war, we should feel like we have some control over it or the ability to get our voices heard.

[vamos scorcho]

just the flat fact, I'm confident, that a fat section of America would vote to end our occupation and all that, just that fact, and the fact that it WON'T happen, I mean, no matter what you want or think, it's not going to happen, fuck the votes, no chance, the only way to make a difference is to get extraordinarily pissed off and SHOW them that you care en masse, if it means making phone calls or ...

 

 

I think the problem is knowing that it would take an unimaginable amount of struggle to get them to consider the opinion of "the people."

[Guest Helper ET]

ive got something under obama, but it isnt an anti war movement

 

 

 

its my dick!

 

 

[awepittance]

arabic ran website, http://www.uruknet.info/ transcribed a good portion of our interview in a long article about the current state of the Iraq war

here : http://www.uruknet.info/?new=74852

 

Thursday, February 10, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Shi'ite pilgrims are targeted, Iraqi Christians migration is studied, Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan names names and declares, "But the people who are high up in the anti-war movement, high up in these organizations that literally used me to promote anti-Bush -- you know, the anti-Bush agenda -- which I was anti-Bush, I still am anti-Bush -- to promote that agenda without following through on, you know, what I felt was the most important thing and that's ending the wars.," and more.

 

We'll open with Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan. Abby Martin (Media Roots Radio) interviewed Cindy and you can stream it here.

 

 

Abby Martin: We just wanted to jump kind of straight to the point here.

 

Cindy Sheehan: Okay.

 

Abby Martin: You know, it seemed like when you were the figurehead of the peace movement, the mainstream media was fully behind you and then it seemed like they turned against you and the antiwar movement turned against you too. They used you as a symbol and they used you as kind of a scapegoat. Do you want to elaborate on that? What did you think about when that happened?

 

Cindy Sheehan: Uh, well first of all when I went to Crawford in 2005 it was a media circus. I remember like on the third or fourth day, there was this really cool AP photographer named Matt and he was down there constantly. And every day, I'd say, "Matt, is it a media circus yet?" And he'd go, "Not quite. Not quite." Then about Thursday, it was a media circus. He agreed that it was a media circus. And I think that -- You know, I used to think that the media was biased towards the right when Bush was president. And so a lot of that media -- and all the media, when they started to realize that I was like serious, I wasn't just a fluke and I wasn't going to go away, they like put the brakes on it and started to marginalize me, painting me as just a grieving mother or a slightly off-kilter because of my grief. And so that started to happen that summer. But still the so-called progressive liberal media, I was still like featured so many times on, you know, like Randi Rhodes or Stephanie Miller or Ed Schultz or whomever was considered on the left up until the Democrats came back into power in 2007. And then they didn't like it that I was saying the same thing about the Democrats that I said about the Republicans. So that came to an end. And I realized then when the Democrats came back into power -- and, you know, I'm just naming names. You know. Organizations like United For Peace & Justice and MoveOn. I realized then that they were not peace organizations. You know, United For Peace & Justice should really be United For Electing Democrats. And MoveOn really is like 'Let's Move On To Full Democratic Tyranny of Our Government.' And so, yeah, they didn't like somebody who realized that it was a systemic problem not a problem of political parties or -- You know, it wasn't just a problem for one side, it was a problem for the world. And so it's been hard -- especially since Obama's been elected because, especially in the beginning, I felt like I was one of the only people in this entire country who was saying, "No, he's -- First of all, why did you support him when he said he was going to send more troops to Afghanistan? When he said he was going to increase hostilities to Pakistan? And, you know, all of his hostile rhetoric against Iran and places like that. And his votes during the Senate? Supporting war, paying for the war, supporting the reauthorization of the Patriot Act for example? Things like that." I was like, "How can you? We have good candidates."

 

Abby Martin: Right.

 

Cindy Sheehan: We have Cynthia McKinney. We have Ralph Nader. They always have said and done the right things. So why are you supporting someone who's against what you supposedly believe in? You were against those same things when Bush was president. Why are you now pro these things now that Obama's president? So it was really, really hard, you know. But I never once considered saying, "Oh, let's just give him a chance. Let's wait and see." You know, because of the three days after, the three days after he was [sworn in] he bombed Pakistan. So it-it seems to be getting a little better. A lot of people are starting to come around. But I think that it's just -- it's just like finally, two years into this administration, you're against the wars again.

 

Abby Martin: Again, yeah. That's why I loved that, I remember I saw you immediately after Obama got elected, I think I saw you in San Diego speaking at the peace rally.

 

Cindy Sheehan: Right, it was a couple of months after, yeah.

 

Abby Martin: And you were just saying the same things. You said, "Why are we surprised he said he was going to do the things."

 

Cindy Sheehan: Right.

 

Abby Martin: "We shouldn't be shocked that he's doing them. He's an aggressive imperialist. This is -- this is who he campaigned on -- as." So I loved that. You didn't skip a beat. So that means you're a true advocate for peace. And a lot of people align themselves with the Democrats and think that's-that's an alternative and that's for peace. It doesn't make any sense. They're both aggessive imperialists, they're just two sides of the coin.

 

Cindy Sheehan: But there's -- but there's some people who are so-called anti-war, so-called peace activists who know the two party system is a sham, who know the Democrats are no different from the Republicans. But still it's about political party over policy and over peace and over progressivism. And so we can't -- There's some people who had just had it after eight years of the Bush administration, like all of us did. And they wanted a change and they didn't care what Obama was saying. They saw how he was saying it, they didn't hear what he was saying. So those people are one thing. But the people who are high up in the anti-war movement, high up in these organizations that literally used me to promote anti-Bush -- you know, the anti-Bush agenda -- which I was anti-Bush, I still am anti-Bush -- to promote that agenda without following through on, you know, what I felt was the most important thing and that's ending the wars.

 

Abby Martin: Yeah. Right. Exactly.

 

Cindy Sheehan: There's no excuse for those people.

 

Abby Martin: Right. There isn't. And just going along with what you're saying, it's astounding, that video I sent you about just interviewing people in the Bay Area and how asleep they are. All these people, they love Obama but they don't know why. They can't tell you one thing that he's doing.

 

Cindy Sheehan: Right.

 

Abby Martin: And just encountering other peace activists. Do you think -- Do you see more of a trend now, like you said, two years into his presidency, finally, do you see people waking up more and saying, "Oh my G**! I was duped!"

 

Cindy Sheehan: Yes.

 

Abby Martin: So you are encountering that a lot more?

 

Cindy Sheehan: Yes and just like it happened when Bush was president that so many Republicans e-mailed me and said that they felt the same way. You know, at first they hated me but then they really started to research or he did something that sent them over the edge or whatever. And that started happening at the end of the Bush administration. And it's starting to happen now too because, I think really, the people who were opposed to Bush and opposed to his policies are -- I would think they were more of the intelligent people in our country. So it's not going to take them eight years to wake up like it took some Bush supporters. I'm not saying Bush supporters are stupid. [Laughter.] I guess I am saying that. If you supported Bush and still support him, what's the matter with you? Really. Come on.

 

Abby Martin: It's just, I almost feel like they're -- Yeah, I'd love to give people the benefit of the doubt and be like, you know, it's going to take you a couple of years to wake up. But I mean, if you got it and you woke up during the Bush administration, I don't see how you got duped at all.

 

Cindy Sheehan: Absolutely.

 

Abby Martin: There was really no -- I just don't see it. No change in civil liberties, no change in foreign policy.

 

Cindy Sheehan: Except for the worse. Except since Obama's been president, many things have gotten worse.

 

Abby Martin: Oh, yeah, exactly.

 

Again, you can stream it here at Media Roots Radio. Time permitting, we'll note more of the interview tomorrow. It's a really frank and important interview (as is to be expected from Cindy). And she has praise as well, including for World Can't Wait which she sees as a real organization dedicated to peace. (In fact, World Can't Wait should make their slogan, "Peace Mom approved.")

[awepittance]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbaS9a1dxU

[delet...]

looks for pictures of your sister. For the purpose of better visualizing the interview of course.

 

;-p