Cindy Sheehan: On the Road to Jericho—On the Road to Crawford

Sara S. DeHart | August 17 2005

Last Thursday, George W. Bush emerged from the Crawford, Texas, White House, a former pig farm, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his side to present a carefully scripted response to Cindy Sheehan's public dissent against the Iraqi war that was dutifully reported in the Washington Post as news. The script expressed sympathy, but it lacked what Cindy Sheehan has, authenticity.

Why do Bush's words "I grieve for every death" sound false and contrived? Or when he says, "It breaks my heart to think about a family weeping over the loss of a loved one," I do not take him at his word. When he says, "I understand the anguish that some [not all] feel about the death that takes place," It sounds like another lie.

According to Sheehan, Bush bounced into the room on the occasion of her first audience with him shortly after her son Casey was killed saying, "Who are we honorin' today?" This doesn't sound like a man capable of real grief. Perhaps if Laura or the twins were among the "fallen" he would shed a genuine tear, but there is growing public doubt that he has the capacity for genuine sympathy, empathy or grief.

Even his use of the term "fallen" for killed speaks to his lack of genuine emotion.

Cindy Sheehan does not ask for Bush's faux sympathy, she demands the impossible—the truth. She knows, along with the rest of the world, that her demands will not be met because those afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder are incapable of truth or empathy. [1]

Dr. Justin Frank, a psychiatrist, wrote in 2004, "If one of my patients said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning, and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an over-simplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged—even sadistic—indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched." [2]

There is other evidence of Bush's narcissistic disorder that is in plain public view, though it is not widely reported by corporate media. When Bush announced in March 2003 that he had ordered the initiation of the Iraqi war and just moments before was caught on camera, pumping his arm saying, "Feels good, feels good," the media buried the item after a brief report.

I've often wondered if he continues to feel good about his illegal war or if some remnant of conscience allows him to even think about the number of dead and wounded he has inflicted upon the world. If the coffins were lined up and he was forced to view them, they would spread as far as the eye could see. [3] My guess is that Bush's hard wiring is missing even a remnant of either conscience or genuine empathy. That is why his statement to the press was both strained and pathetic. With Condi at his side, he could muster one more lie, but to actually speak directly to Cindy Sheehan would be interpreted as blinking first, and not being resolute.

Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas was quoted by Alan Freeman as saying, "For him [Bush], meeting this woman face to face would be blinking. His whole game is to be confident and appear never to doubt and never to waiver. It's his idea of determination." [4]

The lady (Cindy not Condi) is something, isn't she? Even the Houston Chronicle is critical of Bush for not walking out of his air-conditioned palace to meet her standing in the ditch on the Road to Crawford. I recall his 2001 Inaugural speech, which included the lines:

"And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side."

Evidently that does not include Cindy Sheehan standing in the ditch on the road leading to the summer White House at Crawford, Texas. Instead Bush has sent the Rabid Right's attack dogs (O'Reilly, Drudge, Limbaugh, and Frum) to lead the charge. He cannot even do that job without surrogates. O'Reilly went so far as to call her act of dissent, "near treason." David Frum, the neocon "axis of evil" ghost writer, called Sheehan an "anti-war crazy." [5]

Interesting perspective isn't it? O'Reilly apparently views outing Valarie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, as patriotic but questioning Bush's lies about the reasons he declared war on Iraq, treason.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Secretaries of War and State Rumsfeld and Rice met with Bush at the Crawford White House. Other than attending a Republican fund raising event at a neighboring "ranch," little concrete news has come from those meetings. Were Condi and Rumsfeld with Bush and Laura as they sped by Cindy Sheehan's protest site? No one knows for sure because there are no leaks coming from that conclave. The one news report from the Washington Post merely stated that "Vice President Dick Cheney and top-rung advisors, including Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice will come [to Crawford] casual for serious talks ranging from ongoing violence in Iraq to anti-American sentiment abroad, especially in the Middle East." The topic of ongoing saber rattling against Iran was not mentioned in the Post article. [6]

Bush watchers are nervous though; his poll numbers are going down and a four-star general was precipitously removed from his command on specific orders by Rumsfeld, and presumably Bush. The last time Bush's poll numbers dropped dangerously low we were hit by the 9/11 attacks. Catastrophic events have a way of raising a president's poll numbers. His current poll ratings for handling the war now stand at 38 percent with an overall approval rating of 42 percent. This does not reflect a vote of confidence and must be worrisome for his compatriots who must stand for election in 2006 or for Bush who wants his legacy as a war president.

With Cheney on record saying that another 9/11 event will result in "taking out Iran," the United States and the world can only wait to see what the Middle East and world looks like by the end of September 2005. To quote former CIA Official Philip Giraldi, the Pentagon, "under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office was drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11 type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan mandates a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons." [7]

We have a president who does not have the wisdom to step outside his conclave to meet with Cindy Sheehan, an act that would have deflated one woman's stand, so do not expect him to have the wisdom (or appropriate advisors) to deal with Iran. The propaganda began in force earlier this week with "leaked" documents about Iran's threat to Middle Eastern peace.

To reiterate Dr. Justin Frank's concern, "if his actions revealed an unacknowledged–even sadistic—indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched." [2]

I join Dr Frank. I am worried, and perhaps corporate media should be worried too. The chaos of World War III may not sell cable subscriptions or newspapers. It is more likely that the entire civilized world would be reduced to rubble. But the world will forever note that Bush did not blink, nor did he stop on the road to Crawford to offer truth to Cindy Sheehan.

1. American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. DSM-IV

2. Frank, Justin, M.D. (2004). "Bush on the Couch" History News Network, September 13, 2004.

3. "Casualties in Iraq: The Human Cost of Occupation." Antiwar.com, August 1, 2005.

4. Freeman, Alan. "Bush forced to confront the protest of a grieving mother . . . but he still won't meet her." Globe and Mail, August 12, 2005.

5. Amr, Ahmid. "Plaming Cindy Sheehan."DissidentVoice.org. August 10, 2005.

6. Riechmann, Deb. "Bush, Defense, Foreign Policy Teams to Meet." Washington Post, August 11, 2005.

7. Engelhardt, Tom and Schwartz, Michael, "Iranian Ironies." LewRockwell.com August 10, 2005.

Sara Dehart, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Emeritus, University of Minnesota, MN is a freelance writer and democracy activist, living in the Seattle, Washington area.