Just for the record

I sympathise with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain soldier who has been camping out near President Bush's ranch. Growing up in the military, I know the fear of losing a loved one and all the uncertainty it brings, but I can't imagine what it must be like for a mother who believes her son died as the result of either mistakes or willful deceit by his commander-in-chief. I think President Bush does need to answer questions about exit strategies, lack of proper equipment, etc., because it is his duty as the commander-in-chief to take responsibility for a war he chose to wage.

I never supported this war, as is easy to see if you look at the past postings. That said, I don't think we can just pull troops out at this point without a certain amount of chaos ensuing. But...and this is a big but...there needs to be a plan for bringing troops home coupled with establishing the stability needed to protect Iraq's future. I think it's ludicrous that a war was engaged without having that in place already. It's long overdue as of quite some time ago.

In the meantime, there will be debates over whether those of us opposed to the war are somehow unpatriotic (I don't think it's unpatriotic to question the motives of your government...no government deserves blanket approval; there will always be flaws so long as it's made up of humans, who do make errors and also succumb to some of the baser areas of human nature).

I hope Sheehan's protest does not bring about conflict between the two sides of this question, but I hope it also causes people to think about where they stand and why. But regardless of how you believe, the fact of the matter is this is a woman who is expressing her grief very publically, and surely we can sympathise with her loss.

A mother and the president