Report from final days of “Camp Casey”

By Mark de Socio
5 September 2005

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WSWS reporter Mark deSocio traveled to Crawford, Texas at the end of August to speak to protestors supporting the antiwar campaign of Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004. Sheehan camped near President George Bush’s ranch last month where Bush was vacationing to highlight popular opposition to the war, demanding that the president meet with her and explain why his administration had sent her son to be killed in a war based on lies. Bush refused to meet with her.

Cindy Sheehan returned to Crawford, Texas, on August 24 to continue her antiwar vigil outside of Bush’s ranch, after having left on the 19th to tend to her ailing mother. Sheehan and her supporters subsequently launched a nationwide tour to focus and promote popular opposition to the war. Sheehan said she planned to continue her vigil in Washington until the president agreed to meet with her.

“I thought our country was going down, down, down,” Sheehan told the Associated Press while supporters and protesters packed up, preparing to leave for their bus tour which will culminate in Washington D.C. outside the White House. “I thought nobody cared about our children killed in the war, but millions care, and millions care about our country and want to make it better,” she said.

In a show of support, more than two thousand antiwar protesters gathered on August 27 and at least a thousand on August 28 at “Camp Casey.”

The World Socialist Web Site interviewed several antiwar protesters over the weekend, including 33-year-old former Army Sergeant Scott Service of Montana, an Iraq war veteran. “Coming here was a very personal thing for me,” Scott said. “I went through a lot in Iraq... I’d say the most important reason I am here is for emotional and psychological healing.”

Scott had enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2000 because, he said, he “wanted some meaning, some fulfillment, and some sort of honor in serving my country.”

“My feelings against the war became very strong when I was in Iraq,” Scott said. He and his unit were deployed to Iraq in February 2004 and spent the next 15 months there.

Speaking of conditions in Iraq, Scott said that his base sustained up to 800 mortar attacks, one of which narrowly missed him, daily small arms fire, and numerous car bomb attacks at the front gate. He expressed dismay at his unit’s lack of equipment, including anti-ballistic vests that were not issued until later in their deployment.

Concerning morale in his unit, Scott said, “I’d say that 60 percent or so of the people in my unit were angry that they were there, very frustrated with the situation, very confused about why we were doing what we were doing, and why we were even there in the first place.” Asked what sorts of jobs he and his colleagues held prior to deployment, Scott responded with the comment that “the rich don’t fight wars in America.”

When asked what political lessons, if any, he has drawn from his experiences in Iraq and at the Camp Casey vigil, Scott said, “Before I left, I was a registered Democrat. Now I am an Independent.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/shee-s05.shtml