Mom resumes war protest

2005-08-25 22:19

Crawford - A fallen soldier's mother said on Thursday that the anti-war vigil she started nearly three weeks ago near President George W Bush's ranch won't end when she and other protesters pack up the camp next week.

Cindy Sheehan said the day after she leaves, she will embark on a bus tour ending up in Washington, DC, on September 24.

Then the group will start a 24-hour vigil in the nation's capital.

"I am not alone," she said at a news conference on Thursday.

"There's the people standing behind me here, but there's thousands of military families ... who want the same answers to the same questions."

Cindy Sheehan returned to the camp on Wednesday after a weeklong absence when her mother suffered a stroke in Los Angeles.

"I feel like I'm home," Sheehan told The Associated Press late on Wednesday.

"Even when I was in California, half of me was always here. I felt like since I started it, I should be here."

Sheehan started camping off the main road leading to Bush's ranch on August 6, vowing to stay through his month-long vacation unless he talked to her.

She said she realised that Bush had no intentions of meeting with her and other grieving families at the protest, but that her vigil had accomplished other things.

"I absolutely think it's worthwhile because we've galvanised the peace movement," she said.

"We've started people talking about the war again."

Right to protest

Bush returned to Texas on Wednesday after a three-day trip to Idaho where he met with some military families and gave speeches to rally support for the war.

He said on Tuesday that he appreciated Sheehan's right to protest and understood her anguish, although she did not represent the views of a lot of families with whom he had met.

Sheehan and other grieving families met with Bush about two months after her son died last year, before reports of faulty pre-war intelligence surfaced and caused her to become a vocal opponent of the war.

Meanwhile, conservative activists and military families were en route to Crawford from California on a tour called You don't speak for me, Cindy!

Sheehan's 24-year-old son Casey died last year in Iraq.

He is among more than 1 800 US soldiers killed since the March 2003 invasion.

- AP