The Cindy Sheehan Arrest

It was only a matter of time that the ultimate goal of the government to arrest Cindy Sheehan for her political views was going to happen. While her goal to force an American withdrawal from Iraq before America can leave a stable enough government and military in place in Iraq before a substantial number of American soldiers leave is unrealistic. But even neoconservative William Kristol who organized the war efforts with the Project For The New American Century, with Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and others back as far as 1997, this weekend doubted that America will ever really leave Iraq. And Kristol now also expresses some doubts about the Iraq War policy he helped to organize, as well as calling for the firing of Donald Rumsfeld.

But for others who are critical of the Iraq War, like Cindy Sheehan who organized 100,000 protestors, were always a target of the Bush Administration to arrest her to silence her views. When a political movement builds too much strength that government policies are threatened, then nonsense laws are looked at to stiffle that opposition to the government. In the case of Cindy Sheehan, the phony charge used to stiffle her political opinions are a "lack of permit" to protest.

Yet there is no standard set in the U.S. Constitution that a permit is required from government to protest the official policies of that government. This is merely an unconstitutional roadblock to expression of free political expression. There was no violence connected to the protest of Cindy Sheehan when arrested. No rock throwing or molotov cocktails. It was an orderly and peacful expression of her personal political views.

But America joins the worst governments in the world, like China, Cuba and North Korea, when those that oppose government policy are rounded up and arrested by government. While American Communists were popular in the 1930's in America drawing an increasing number of popular votes in national elections, the American government sometimes arrested Communists for merely printing newspapers. The current proposed amendment to "protect the flag" is a new law being proposed to round up political protestors. Even Larry Flynt, the colorful publisher of trashy magazines, faced obscenity charges to silence his political, social and morality views, by the American government. In China, a protestor is run over by a tank. In the U.S., some other unacceptable unconstitutional roadblock to free expression is erected to prevent those with views contrary to government from expressing themselves.

Cindy Sheehan has built a growing movement, although it is not realistic for America to withdrawal troops at this time because of the instability that we helped to create in Iraq. When 100,000 other persons joined Cindy Sheehan this weekend, her movement is becoming very strong. When only 700 counterprotestors were organized to protest Cindy Sheehan's efforts, then the Bush Administration knew their Iraq War policy is in trouble. The arrest of Cindy Sheehan could have been expected to stiffle her growing political opinions against the Iraq War. Instead of making a good case for the continued war in Iraq, the Bush Administration found a very cheap way out by arresting Cindy Sheehan for protesting "without a permit". This simply should not be the American way. We're supposedly the nation attempting to "teach" democracy to the MidEast and setting no example when cheap and clearly unconstitutional means are used to round up political opponents of the government.