Freedom Socialist • Vol. 28, No. 5 • October-November 2007

From Vietnam to Iraq, a long line of chickenhawks
Burden of combat is borne by children of the working class, not the rich

Cindy Sheehan is justly famous for putting new life into the anti-war movement with her passionate activism after her son Casey was killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Earlier this year, she began strongly denouncing the Democrats for their culpability for the war, and she has announced that she intends to run for Congress against Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The column below is reprinted from her blog at www.cindy-sheehan.org.

by Cindy Sheehan

Casey Sheehan's Army boots and photo. Photo: AP

An anti-war activist at a town hall meeting in Iowa recently asked Mitt Romney why not one of his five sons served the USA in the military. The woman’s brother had been in Iraq and she understandably would have liked to know if the Romney family was so supportive of BushCo’s war of terror why didn’t they support it with their own flesh and blood.

Mitt Romney said that his five privileged elite stockbroker/real estate boys are supporting our nation by helping get their father “elected.” We could dispute the allegation of how getting a pandering, war-mongering, born-again abortion foe elected is good for our country, but that’s not the point. The point is the ruling class elite who don’t have to worry about healthcare, jobs, or how they are going to pay for their children’s college tuition, send our children to fight and die in their wars that only make them richer while sending working-class families into lifetimes of despair.

We know that 58,000 mothers and 58,000 fathers (many of whose children were drafted, but not all) found out how being part of the lower classes during Vietnam was detrimental to your family and thousands of vets from Vietnam are still fighting for physical and mental health benefits from a government who sent them off to a immoral war. Almost twice as many Vietnam Vets have killed themselves as were killed there; and the biggest percentage of our nation’s scandalous homeless problem are Veterans. Almost 4,000 mothers are feeling the same despair from Iraq ... and already we are seeing Iraq War veterans on the streets and committing suicide. Somehow I don’t think electing Mitt Romney will help to alleviate any of this suffering.

In the true chickenhawk tradition, Mitt Romney did not go to Vietnam. He was doing Mormon “missionary” work: whatever that means. I guess he could have been in a hot, steamy jungle fighting fear, fatigue, death, and boredom while trying to score heroin, but somehow I feel that is not the case. When I was youth minister at St. Mary’s in Vacaville, I had many Mormon missionaries bike into my office to try and save me from the sin of “Catholicism.” Honestly, the Republican chickenhawks should get together and form a club and laugh about how they avoided Vietnam and how their children don’t have to go to Iraq so their daddies and granddaddies can’t grease the war machine with their own flesh and blood.

Romney also stated that we have an “all volunteer” Army and it was going to “stay that way” ... you bet it is! Because then, all the chickenhawks can absolve themselves from the fact that they supported a nasty war where people are being killed unnecessarily by screaming: “Your son volunteered.” The concept of a “professional Army” is an imperialistic trick to keep the ordinary citizen far away from the sacrifice and keep them just anesthetized enough to not get outraged and actually do something about it.

I have talked to college Republicans and young people who have come to my events to yell obscene things at me and I have asked them why, if they support George and his war for profit, don’t they go to the nearest recruiter’s office and enlist. Their answers are a lot like Romney’s. They are serving their country by going to college so they can own businesses that will “employ” the returning vets. Or they are “serving” their country by protesting me.

Many of our young people, especially people of color, don’t have a lot of options to get jobs, educations, or out of their dangerous communities (isn’t it ironic) and they join the military. As for Casey, I would rather have him be flipping burgers in Vacaville than dead, but he felt he had to join the Army to take the pressure off of our family for college. It is a tragic trade.

If Romney’s children have the option of serving our nation by riding around in RVs and writing blogs, then all of our children should have that option. For our lower socioeconomic children, working for the candidate of their choice should come with a $20,000 bonus and college tuition credits.

If the wealthy elite doesn’t have to worry about sending their children to college, then all of our children who want to should be able to go to college for little or no tuition. They should not have to trade their lives or physical or mental health for a degree. We need to bring our tax dollars home from Iraq and our manufacturing jobs back from overseas to give our young people more options.

It’s time to start talking about the poverty draft and how the ruling class fascists get to protect their children to the detriment of our children.

I don’t think military service should be a requirement to be the President — but a hypocrite is a hypocrite. If a candidate supports this war, or future wars, I say send your own child. That would prove you are serious when you say my son died for a “noble cause.”