Cindy Sheehan - More Red Than Red, White and Blue?

International Affairs

Cindy - More Red than Red, White & Blue?

Toby Westerman

Cindy Sheehan, poster girl for the "peace movement" and darling of the established media, is habitually labeled as a peace "activist" or as "peace mom." Sheehan's recent actions demonstrate that she is not just an "activist" for peace, and there is more to the "peace movement" in the U.S. than concern about American foreign policy.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan joins Communist President Chavez at the World Social Forum in Venezuela - BBC News

Sheehan was in Venezuela for the sixth World Social Forum, a gathering of Socialist/Communist activists from around the world. While there, she readily accepted an invitation for a formal meeting with Marxist President Hugo Chavez at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, according to a report from Radio Havana Cuba, the official broadcasting service of the Communist Cuban regime.

Although the dominant media in the U.S. consistently describe Chavez as merely a "leftist," his words and actions would make Stalin proud. From support of Marxist guerrilla groups to unabashed admiration of North Korea, there is no real doubt that "Communist" or "Marxist" better suits Chavez than the more tepid "leftist" label.

Most recently, at a mass rally toward the end of the World Social Forum, Chavez declared his confidence that the gathering would "unleash a new offensive against the capitalist system," and also asserted that "the people will eradicate capitalism in the 21st century."

Calling Chavez something more serious than a "leftist" could, however, alarm (or alert) the American people to a growing danger in what used to be "America's backyard."

Chavez and Sheehan met at the Mirafloras Palace for a specific purpose: to "foster an opposition structure" to the war in Iraq and face counter-“attacks and actions by the U.S. government," according to the Radio Havana report.

The meeting demonstrated that a hostile, foreign influence is active in the U.S. "peace movement." Chavez, who is a proud supporter of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Communist Cuba, has found a friend and ally in Cindy Sheehan.

Gold star mother Cindy cannot claim ignorance of the kind of support she is receiving. Chavez' rhetoric is crystal clear, as are the red flags, red berets, red shirts, spray painted hammer and sickle images which appear on walls in Caracas - they all tell the same story. Cindy is now part of the "Revolution," the ongoing effort to either change or destroy America.

There is no denying that Cindy the peace mom is trying to become Cindy the Internationalist, like rebels Che Guevara and Puerto Rican revolutionary leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios.

Elma Rosado and Cindy Sheehan with Chavez

Chavez embraces Sheehan and Elma Rosado, wife of a Puerto Rican revolutionary - El Mundo website

Although Che, who ended his revolutionary career in a Bolivian ravine in 1968, is the better known of the two, Ojeda Rios has a special place in Sheehan's political career. Ojeda Rios was a leader of the Boricua People's Army, or the Macheteros (machete-wielders), a group dedicated to the independence of Puerto Rico from the U.S. through violent means. Declared guilty of a multi-million dollar Wells Fargo robbery and implicated in the destruction of eleven National Guard jet fighters, Ojeda Rios had been a wanted fugitive from 1990 until shot and killed during an FBI raid in September 2005.

Ojeda Rios' life as a revolutionary and his death at the hands of the FBI made him the latest martyr for Socialism.

At one point during the World Forum, Cindy shared the spotlight with Ojeda Rios' wife, Elma Beatriz Rosado. As he faced the crowd from a podium, Chavez publicly put his right arm around Sheehan and his left around Rosado.

Cindy the "peace mom" was publicly welcomed to the "Revolution."

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Posted February 8, 2006

Toby Westerman publishes
International News Analysis - Today
An analytical and uncompromising weekly analysis of the world situation

Contact T. Westerman at
www.inatoday.com
or P.O. BOX 5182, Rockford, ILL, 61125-0182