Sunday, September 25, 2005
The British have their own Cindy Sheehan
A mother whose son was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra a fortnight ago broke down in tears yesterday as she publicly pleaded with Tony Blair to bring British troops home from Iraq.
Sue Smith, who had earlier delivered a private letter to 10 Downing Street, read out its emotional contents to an estimated crowd of 20,000anti-war demonstrators in Hyde Park after a protest march through central London which began in Parliament square.
Smith, from Tamworth, said she last saw her son, Peter Hewett, in a coffin in a chapel.
She offered a stark message to the Prime Minister: “You can never know how that feels, but you have the power to stop it happening again. You made the decision to go to Iraq, and you can make the decision to get our sons and daughters out of there.”
Despite the demonstration failing to meet its organisers’ expectations of around 100,000, Smith’s plea aimed to attract public attention in the same way that Cindy Sheehan’s vigil at George Bush’s ranch in Texas has sparked a US focus on the continuing coalition presence in Iraq.
Like Sheehan, Mother Smith seems to have attracted all the usual lefties:
Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop The War Coalition, who organised yesterday’s march, said: “There are tens of thousands who have marched above all to bring the troops home and end this bloody, disastrous occupation.”
In Hyde Park, Kate Hudson, chair of CND, read out a welcome message from the London mayor Ken Livingstone.
“The war and occupation have brought neither democracy nor peace to Iraq,” Livingstone claimed.
Veteran campaigner, Tony Benn, described the war as “corrupt” and “unwinnable”.
I am sorry for Sue Smith's loss. I am even more sorry for the British troops who soldier on notwithstanding her denigration of their mission.
3 Comments:
By 
Fidothedog, at
Mon Sep 26, 06:37:00 PM:
You hear them bleating bring the troops home, but what happens then? Iraq becomes split into several parts? A long drawn out civil car and who knows how many thousands of dead. Add to that the possibility of any war then spilling into nearby countrys.
You can bet the same people will then be saying why didnt we do something to prevent that happening.
By 
, at
Tue Sep 27, 04:59:00 AM:
And another thing she has in common with Cindy Sheehan is who the fuck would have ever heard of her if it wasn't for the blogs.
Bravo.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Sep 27, 08:00:00 AM:
Well, Anonymous Cursing Guy, I think you overestimate blog readership or overindulge in it to the exclusion of other sources. Cindy Sheehan is featured rather non-stop on media outlets that generate tens and hundreds of millions of readers. The top bloggers have a readership in the hundreds of thousands at most. There certainly have been news stories kept alive by bloggers, but neither Cindy Sheehan nor Sue Smith is one of them.
