Silent Parents Speak Up

The New York Sun ran this staff editorial on August 24, 2005.

UNDAUNTED COURAGE

While Cindy Sheehan and her anti-war crowd have been getting all the attention, other parents too have been grieving for their children killed serving their country - with decidedly different messages for President Bush. Some members of this previously silent group are beginning to speak out. They're frustrated with Ms. Sheehan's anti-war message dominating the airwaves.

Natalie Healy, whose Navy SEAL son Daniel was killed in June in Afghanistan, told The New York Sun that she held a rally in support of the troops in Portsmouth, N.H., on Saturday, "to counteract what Ms. Sheehan is doing," and to "let troops know not all Americans feel the same way." Mrs. Healy said that if Ms. Sheehan's "voice dominates, the wrong message will get out to our troops and our enemies." She says she wants to send out the message that there "are Americans who have the courage to finish the mission that we set out to do." Mrs. Healy is organizing a few vigils to take place tonight and says she plans to organize more rallies in the future.

Gary Qualls is another such parent. His son Louis was killed fighting for Fallujah. Mr. Qualls told the Sun he started publicly voicing his views after seeing a cross bearing his son's name at Ms. Sheehan's anti-war protest at Crawford, Texas. He was upset that the anti-war protesters were "trying to claim my son's memory" and thereby "disrespecting" it by associating it with their anti-war cause. Mr. Qualls removed his son's cross and asked the protesters to never again use it for "political purposes." Twice the anti-war protesters have put up another cross with Louis Qualls's name on it, Mr. Qualls told the Sun, and twice he had to remove the crosses and again ask the anti-war demonstrators to not put it up again. When asked about the loss of his son, Mr. Qualls said, "If it takes my whole family to see to the security of this nation so we can remain a free people, so be it." He added: "and so we can help everybody else attain their freedom," as well.

Talk about undaunted courage. These are the stories of only two parents, and other such stories are emerging from around the country. Move America Forward, an organization that supports the war on terror, is leading a "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" tour of military families from across the country. The tour will culminate in a rally at Crawford on Saturday "to support our troops AND their mission in Iraq."

Ms. Sheehan has the right to protest and grieve as she sees fit. These other formerly silent parents beginning to speak up, however, are reminding Americans that Ms. Sheehan is only one voice among many. These other parents - and no doubt many, many, more - are proud of the cause their children died fighting for: bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan, and making America safer as a result.

In his famous 1969 "silent majority" speech, in response to anti-war Vietnam protests, President Nixon told the nation: "I would be untrue to my oath of office if I allowed the policy of this nation to be dictated by the minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the nation by mounting demonstrations in the street." He understood that a minority, if only that, within the anti-war movement comprised enemy agents seeking to defeat America in the political sphere. The anti-war movement did triumph in the struggle for Indochina. Our support to troops was cut and America's allies were abandoned to face the communists alone. Today a new generation of patriots is rising to ensure that a similar mistake is not made in Iraq.

Serious statesmen don't permit whoever shouts the loudest, or whichever side trumps in the day's public opinion ratings, to guide their policy decisions. Mr. Bush has been demonstrating that he is such a statesman. His policy decisions are guided by America's national interest, and we are confident he will continue the war on terror until America is victorious, despite Ms. Sheehan and her friends. No doubt he is buoyed by the voices of Mrs. Healy, Mr. Qualls, and others supporting our troops and the missions on which he's sent them. As no doubt are the GIs themselves.