Hardball Time

Cindy Sheehan on Hardball, August 15, 2005

Over a week ago, Cindy Sheehan was interviewed by Chris Matthews on Hardball.

Why are her statements only getting attention now?

Simple. Almost no one watches MSNBC, and with good reason. It takes a while to hear about something that was said on that cable channel.

Transcript

(Excerpt)

MATTHEWS: Can I ask you a tough question? A very tough question.

SHEEHAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: All right. If your son had been killed in Afghanistan, would you have a different feeling?

SHEEHAN: I don't think so, Chris, because I believe that Afghanistan is almost the same thing. We're fighting terrorism. Or terrorists, we're saying. But they're not contained in a country. This is an ideology and not an enemy. And we know that Iraq, Iraq had no terrorism. They were no threat to the United States of America.

MATTHEWS: But Afghanistan was harboring, the Taliban was harboring al-Qaida which is the group that attacked us on 9/11.

SHEEHAN: Well then we should have gone after al-Qaida and maybe not after the country of Afghanistan.

MATTHEWS: But that's where they were being harbored. That's where they were headquartered. Shouldn't we go after their headquarters? Doesn't that make sense?

SHEEHAN: Well, but there were a lot of innocent people killed in that invasion, too. ... But I'm seeing that we're sending our ground troops in to invade countries where the entire country wasn't the problem. Especially Iraq. Iraq was no problem. And why do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we're looking for a select group of people in that country?

So I believe that our troops should be brought home out of both places where we're obviously not having any success in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and that's who they told us was responsible for 9/11.

MATTHEWS: The reason I ask that because a lot of Americans believe going to Afghanistan made since because we were doing what the president said he would do that very day. A couple days after 9/11. He said I'm going to get the people that attacked these buildings. And he went over and got them. And that was where America was so united.

Many Democrats are flip-flopping, taking the position that we should never have gone into Iraq. Instead, they say that we should have concentrated solely on bin Laden and Afghanistan.

Of course, the overwhelming number of Dems initially voted in support of military action in Iraq; but they now back away from that support by blaming Bush and claiming that they didn't know what they were doing at the time--"Bush lied."

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Still, there are very few Dems willing to come out and say that we should not have overthrown the Taliban.

It takes a real fringe radical Leftist to say that it was a mistake to go into Afghanistan after 9/11.

Without question, the Taliban government in Afghanistan provided support and a haven to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The 9/11 attacks were acts of war. Three thousand innocents died. Of course, we responded militarily to defend ourselves against the terrorist threat that became painfully clear on the morning of September 11, 2001.

These comments by Sheehan really make me gag:

I'm seeing that we're sending our ground troops in to invade countries where the entire country wasn't the problem. Especially Iraq. Iraq was no problem. And why do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we're looking for a select group of people in that country?

So I believe that our troops should be brought home out of both places where we're obviously not having any success in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and that's who they told us was responsible for 9/11.

Sheehan sounds like she doubts bin Laden was responsible for the attacks. "[T]hat's who they told us was responsible for 9/11," she says.

Hey! Cindy! BIN LADEN told us he was responsible.

Text of bin Laden's videotaped speech sent to Al Jazeera in November, 2004.

I believe that tape was meant to influence the U.S. presidential election and intended to be an attack ad against President Bush. Does al Qaeda have 527 status?

The speech echoed many of Michael Moore's points from Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore should have sued for copyright infringement; but I digress.

Sheehan asks, "[W]hy do we send in invading armies to march into Afghanistan when we're looking for a select group of people in that country?"

That is so silly it's laughable. Using Sheehan's reasoning, we were wrong to declare war on Germany since we were really after Hitler and the leaders of the Third Reich.

What Sheehan's exchange with Matthews does is highlight what an extremist she is and how out of touch she is with mainstream America.