Cindy Sheehan of California, mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan, killed in action in Baghdad, April 4, 2004, has written an open letter to George Bush, and is currently maintaining a vigil at the gates of Bush's ranch in Crawford, TX, where he is vacationing. Cindy is demanding that he explain to her, face-to-face, why her son had to die. Casey has been outside the ranch for fours days now, and Bush is refusing to come out. Cindy says she's staying until Bush talks to her or leaves Texas.

"If he doesn’t come out to talk to me in Crawford, I’ll follow him to D.C., and I’ll camp out on his lawn," she said, to a round of applause from her supporters at the ranch gates. "I’ll go to prison. I don’t want to live in a country where people are treated this way." She told the Lone Star Iconoclast: "I don’t want [President Bush] to use my son’s name or my family name to justify any more killing or to exploit my son's name, my son’s sacrifice, or my son’s honor to justify more killing. As a mother, why would I want one more mother to go through what I’m going through, Iraqi or American? And I want to tell him that the only way to honor my son’s sacrifice is to bring the troops home now."

Other bereaved families of Iraq fallen are now converging on Crawford. (Gold Star Families for Peace) A petition to tell Bush to "Talk to Cindy!" is online at Bring Them Home Now.

See our last post on Iraq, and trouble in the military.