"Cindy Sheehan's soldier son Casey was killed near Baghdad. Now her one-woman protest at the gates of the US president's Texas ranch has become a metaphor for a nation's increasing unease about involvement in an unwinnable conflict. Something strange is taking place deep in the heart of Texas, where the President of the United States is holed up at his Prairie Chapel ranch, a few miles from the town of Crawford. There, in the space of a few days, a middle-aged Californian, whose soldier son died in Iraq, has become arguably the best-known woman in the US.
On one level, the attention generated by 48-year-old Cindy Sheehan - from the hitherto obscure town of Vacaville, an hour's drive north-east of San Francisco - merely proves the old adage that, like nature, the news business cannot tolerate a vacuum.
Obedient to the tradition that an American President must be covered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (including holidays) dozens of White House reporters are having to spend this sweltering August on the plains of central Texas as George Bush takes his customary extended summer vacation.
Normally, hard news barely extends beyond barbecue fund raisers, a few minutely choreographed but content-free trips to "meet ordinary Americans," and the odd Presidential excursion to a little league baseball game. This year however manna has descended in the desert for the media mini-horde.
What started as a one-woman protest has turned into metaphor for a country's growing disillusion at an increasingly unwinnable war. Ms Sheehan, personable, sincere, articulate, and bereaved of a son, has turned into the human face of this disillusion.
The Lone Star State too has been contributing an extra dash of colour - most notably on Sunday when Larry Mattlage, a local farmer who rents his land to networks for a view of the President's 1,600 acre spread, fired his shotgun twice into the air, sending reporters into a frenzy and an ever-nervous Presidential secret service into apoplexy.
He claimed he was merely warming up for the dove hunting season: "I ain't threatening nobody, and I ain't pointing a gun at nobody," he said. "This is Texas." But in the next breath Mr Mattlage made clear the real source of his exasperation, the human doves at Ms Sheehan's camp which is now in to its 10th day. "Five weeks of this is too much," he complained, referring to Ms Sheehan's vow to remain throughout the President's holiday unless he talks to her.
But her "camp-in" is anything but a hollow summer stunt. Never has the Iraq war been so unpopular. Most Americans now think the US-led invasion of 2003 was a mistake, and by a margin of almost two to one disapprove of Mr Bush's handling of it. Like Ms Sheehan, they want some or all of the 138,000 US troops in Iraq brought home, and soon.
Even Republicans are becoming queasy at the implications for next year's mid-term elections, if the present violence and bloodshed continues. A telling sign is how even conservative talk-show hosts such as Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, normally the most reliable of cheerleaders for the administration, have become withering in criticism of Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary.
Small white crosses bearing the names of dead soldiers make an impromptu roadside shrine. Banners have sprouted on the trees, while supporters across the country send daily consignments of flowers. Half a dozen dark green Porta-Potties now give a temporary permanence to the scene - as have the local police officers urging sightseers to move on. At least one celebrity has shown up too, in the person of Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame.
As public attention has grown, Ms Sheehan's protest has acquired a highly-professional veneer. She is a co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, an anti-war group that has demanded the impeachment of Mr Bush, and is no media neophyte. A PR firm from Washington has is on the spot to co-ordinate and maximise press coverage.
On Saturday - the day after Mr Bush's motorcade swept past Camp Casey without stopping, en route to a $2m fundraiser for Texas Republicans - Gold Star Families even spent $15,000 on a television advert. In the advert, Ms Sheehan declares: "All I wanted was an hour out his extended vacation time, but he's refused to meet with me and other military families. We just want honest answers."
Meanwhile Joe Trippi, the 2004 Presidential campaign manager of Howard Dean, has organised pro-Cindy blogs, while Michael Moore, director of Fahrenheit 9/11 and a professional anti-Bush agitator, has made over his website to the cause. The protest moreover may be spreading: a rally in support of Camp Casey was scheduled for yesterday afternoon in Union Square, Manhattan."-from the story in today's Belfast Telegraph (IR).
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