Thread: Husband of "peace mom" files for divorce

FAIRFIELD, Calif. - The husband of Cindy Sheehan, the mother camped outside President Bush's Texas ranch to protest the death of a son in the Iraq war, has filed for divorce, according to court documents.


Patrick Sheehan filed the divorce petition Friday in Solano County court, northeast of San Francisco. His lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

The couple's eldest child, Casey, 24, was an Army soldier killed in April 2004. Cindy Sheehan has said the stress of the death led to the separation of the couple, who were high school sweethearts.

Sheehan has vowed to remain in Texas through Bush's August vacation, unless he meets with her. She began her protest 10 days ago and has since been joined by more than 100 anti-war activists.

"Our message is to bring the troops home," Sheehan, of Vacaville, said Monday.

The White House on Monday again issued a statement saying that Bush sympathizes with Sheehan. The president has given no indication that he will meet with her.

Sheehan, 48, and other grieving military families met with Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, near Seattle, two months after her son's death.

But she says the meeting was unsatisfactory, and it came before reports surfaced about faulty pre-war intelligence, which enraged her.

When Sheehan arrived in Crawford on Aug. 6, her small group started marching to Bush's ranch, then was moved by authorities to a plot of land a few miles away.

Late Monday, a pickup truck tore through rows of white crosses that stretched about two-tenths of a mile along the side of the road at the Crawford camp. The crosses bore the names of fallen U.S. soldiers. No one was hurt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/...ce_mom_divorce



President of Gold Star Families for Peace, Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, kneels with a cross bearing the name of her military son Casey who died serving in Iraq in 2004, at her anti-war protest camp near the ranch owned by U.S. President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas August 15, 2005. Sheehan is on the second week of campaigning against the U.S. military presence in Iraq near Bush's ranch


Lets bring our boys home

Sometimes the death of a child will tear the best marriage apart. I feel for her loss. I don't agree with what she is doing now but I do feel for her loss.

For the sake of the neighbors, I agree. She should see that enough is enough. I understand that noone likes it when a loved one died in battle, but he did sign his name on the line. He signed up for combat. Sorry, but he knew that this was part of the job...and she probably did as well.

I am sorry for her and her husband that he has filed for divorce, but we don't know what her life was like before this trajedy.

Originally Posted by schsa

Sometimes the death of a child will tear the best marriage apart. I feel for her loss. I don't agree with what she is doing now but I do feel for her loss.

I think we all for for her and her loss. She is making her stand alone because her family and her husband's family are not supporting her in her vigil.

I wonder why bush just cant come out and give her a minute of his time, witch to her may end a minute of her agony...I am not looking into this deeply or in a political way ,Just in a way of a human being.....JMO

Originally Posted by budlite

I wonder why bush just cant come out and give her a minute of his time, witch to her may end a minute of her agony...I am not looking into this deeply or in a political way ,Just in a way of a human being.....JMO

I agree.. I just don't understand why he just can't take five mins to talk w/ her. What would it really hurt? I can't imagine the hurt she and other families who have lost loved ones due to this war are feeling.

Originally Posted by Loosinw8

I do feel for this mom who has lost her son but I do (as a military spouse) object to what she is doing. Her son was not forced into the army . HE joined at his own free will. I think it would have been different if he had been drafted into the Army but he was not.. She has disgraced the military for what she is doing . I understand why Bush is not coming out to talk with her . To do this will admit that he thinks what he is doing is wrong with Iraq. Although I wish this conflict with Iraq would end, doing so will make matters much worse for the Iraqi civilians..

I totally DO NOT agree. If Bush would take a few minutes to talk with her, it wouldn't show he thinks he was wrong, it would show that he has compassion and genuinely cares for the troops and their families. I believe that she is doing this for all the families that have lost their children to this war, which we were lead into with false pretenses. Blast me if you want, but this is the way I feel! Yes, he signed on the dotted line, but did he sign up to be misled, I doubt it, he signed up to serve his country, or maybe he needed college money, etc. there are many reasons to join the military, my DH is a former marine, but that doesn't mean he would have wanted to fight under false pretenses.

Originally Posted by JANBAB

I totally DO NOT agree. If Bush would take a few minutes to talk with her, it wouldn't show he thinks he was wrong, it would show that he has compassion and genuinely cares for the troops and their families. I believe that she is doing this for all the families that have lost their children to this war, which we were lead into with false pretenses. Blast me if you want, but this is the way I feel! Yes, he signed on the dotted line, but did he sign up to be misled, I doubt it, he signed up to serve his country, or maybe he needed college money, etc. there are many reasons to join the military, my DH is a former marine, but that doesn't mean he would have wanted to fight under false pretenses.

We were not misled about the war. The intelligence reports that were used were real and presented a clear and present danger. Even if we did not go by the intelligence, the fact still remains, Iraq was not following the UN Resolutions, that in itself was grounds for us to go back into Iraq. When checking for WMD UN seals were found to be broken. The UN came back with lame excuses for that and I don't trust the UN. Just look at the scandal on the Oil For Food in the UN, could we really trust these dishonest people to NOT cover Saddam Hussien's back? Considering they were getting rich of the misery of the Iraqi people.

As for Bush taking 5 minutes to talk to Ms. Sheehan, he has already talked to her. If he goes out and talks to her again, is she going to insist that he talks to her again? There are so many grieving families out there....for this I am so sorry, but I am also thankful that these families give us such brave young men and women. How many more families are going to demand 5 minutes of the President's time? Bush may be on a 5 week "vacation", but all that means is that he is running the country from his real home instead of the White House.

We are fighting for the PURPLE fingers. That is reason enough to be there to me. It is actually funny. When we first went to Iraq, we accomplished what we wanted and pulled out, but people were fuming saying that we should have gone to Baghdad and taken Hussien out....that was not the plan at the time and if we had then the world would have been yelling that that wasn't part of the plan. The way I see it, in many eyes the Iraqi situation is a dang if you do and danged if you don't. As to whether we agree or disagree with the war in Iraq, we need to be supportive of our troops and not turn this into a media circus such as we had during Vietnam. No one stops to think of what damage they are doing to our troops, first off moral, second the propaganda that we are feeding to our enemies. When retractions and apologies are made they do not find their way into the enemies media, they just keep playing the original story.

I have seen mentioned several times remarks on the "Downing Street Memos". That is such hogwash. Why would a credible journalist destroy the ONLY evidence they had? Why retype it and destroy it? How much sense does that make. The only sense it makes is that it is untrue. Tony Blair is no idiot and he is running into the same problems as Bush. If the memo were true, you can guarantee that Blair would use it in his favor.

Originally Posted by Loosinw8

When he signed on the dotted line he knew he had a chance to go to war and that he could DIE in war.. If he wanted money for college there is other ways of doing that. You think we should have never been to Iraq I feel different that is what makes us American we have the freedom to feel how we feel. If it wasnt for our military we would not have this freedom. I for one feel safer that Sadaam is out of power. This man was a nut job!! I still think there was weapons but he had so much time to get them out of the country. We played with him for so many years and we had threaten for how many months before we actaually went in. Do you think he did not have enough time to get them out.. HE proved years ago he had those weapons when he killed all those kurds with gas.. Why would he not let us to continue to go in there before the war to start to see if he had the weapons . So although many believe we went in for the wrong reasons I believe that I feel much safer that he is out of power! My friends husband served 2 tours in Iraq and is getting ready to serve another term she says what we see on TV is not what the IRaqi people feel. Most of the civilians are VERY happy we are there and they feel they are much better off then they were even with the violence there. Of course the news does not show that because that is not good news . I blame most of the negativity of the war on the media .

I totally agree!!