Cindy Sheehan

Last week our Senate district lost a loved one over in Iraq. His name was Brian Derks and while I did not know him personally, reading about his life and his family in the local newspaper makes me feel like I knew him and even miss him in a strange way. He was young, ambitious and idealistic. He knew that he might have to make the ultimate sacrifice and in the end he gave his life for a noble idea of protecting our country and battling tyranny in a country halfway around the world.

Unfortunately, too many of our young men and women are having to make this sacrifice. This sacrifice is often harder on the remaining family members and loved ones left behind. One reason could be that the people back home were not ready to make the same level of commitment or didn't believe in the cause their loved ones died for. This is what has led us to Cindy Sheehan.

As most people know, she is the mother of a lost soldier in Iraq who has taken up camp outside President Bush's house in Texas. She is demanding a meeting with him. She has called the war a mistake and Bush a liar and the most dangerous terrorist alive. I am not sure what she hopes to accomplish by meeting with Bush other than to embarrass him. One can almost understand how a mother could become so hostile towards the man she blames for the death of her son. However, her blame is misplaced and her anger is causing her to say things that do not bring honor to her son's memory. In her heart she must realize that President Bush is not to blame but has no other outlet for dealing with the immense pain. It's easier to blame someone than to realize it was her son's choice to lay down his life over staying home and building the life she wanted for him.

The most frustrating part of the whole ordeal is how the left wing groups have manipulated her. There are some on that side that might honestly care about her and her son but the rest are simply using her to attack a supposed weakness of Pres. Bush. The media is loving it because August is a slow news month and because they can highlight the personal side of the war. When war is personalized, support for the war usually plummets.

Most people support the war when it's described in general concepts. Good vs evil, spreading freedom, protecting our country from future attacks, etc. These are all good things that Americans support. What they don't support is losing somebody they know. Somebody with a name and a face is hard to forget and hard to justify sacrificing in the name of some abstract cause or idea especially when they have lost the link between the war and that cause.

The next few months will be critical in winning the war. Iraq needs to pass their constitution and continue building up their own security forces. But more important is for the President to communicate how we are making progress. He needs to bring the war back to the level of ideas and move it away from the personal stories of loss. He needs to restore our faith by explaining how winning the war really does make the world a better and safer place. The American people want to believe in such a cause but we need to be reminded especially in the face of such grief and tragedy.