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Grieving mom lashes out at Bush
08/08/2005 11:04 - (SA)
Crawford - The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq said on Sunday her vigil outside United States President George W Bush's ranch protests the use of her son's death to justify the Iraq war.
"I don't want him to justify my son's honourable sacrifice to continue his murderous killing policies," Cindy Sheehan told CNN's Late Edition.
Sheehan has been demanding to see Bush and make him aware of the suffering the war has brought to Iraq.
Sheehan's son Casey Sheehan was killed in Baghdad's Sadr City in April 2004.
"Then George Bush said the families can be rest assured that their children died for a noble cause. And he also said we have to honour the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers by continuing the mission, by staying the mission in Iraq.
"I do not want him to use my son's name to continue the killing. It's bad enough that my son is dead," she told CNN.
Bush 'insensitive' to mourning family
Sheehan met with Bush a year ago, among 15 families expecting consoling words from Bush.
"He acted like it was a party," she told CNN.
"We wanted to use the time for him to know he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity," Sheehan said.
"He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one'.
"Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject," Sheehan said.
Demanding to speak to Bush
Sheehan's son was one of the 1 810 United States soldiers killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. She plans to camp out until she gets a chance to speak to Bush again about the death of her son.
She said Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin met her outside the ranch on Saturday and were "very respectful".
"Joe Hagin, the deputy chief of staff, said, 'I can tell you the president really cares'. And I said, 'You can't tell me that because I've met with him and I know he doesn't care,'" she told CNN.
She is also a founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, who have lost loved ones to war and oppose the Iraq invasion.
"Why would I want one more mother - either Iraqi or American - to go through what I'm going through? I don't want him to justify my son's honourable sacrifice to continue his murderous killing policies," Sheehan told CNN.
A national Newsweek survey on Saturday put Bush's national poll ratings on Iraq at a new low, with only 34% of Americans polled saying they approved of his management of the conflict.
- AFP
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