So maybe this fake letter isn’t fake after all.

Ted, good catch. Isn’t it nice to know we’ll never hear that quote repeated again, unless someone finds a better source? (Here’s a working link to the CNN transcript.)

Looks like you’re right. I can’t find a good source for that quote either.

But Ted’s right. A mother who’s just lost her son in Iraq probably deserves more than a cruel game of telephone where every reporting blog adds something else “evile” that she’s supposedly said.

Almost the entire world is pretty much at that point with America and Iraq as well, come to think of it. It’s not a fringe position.

But the idea that the US fights wars for Israel is a fringe position.

Yes, espoused by fringe nutjobs like Phil Zelikow, who can’t possibly have any insight into the internal working of the Bush White House.

Incidentally, when you do so, use a source that you can stand behind. I’m going to save re-typing and quote myself:

***********************

Has anyone found a good source for the line about defending Israel? I started tracking back links. Half of them lead nowhere. Some lead to OfficialWire, which is not a news service but a paid press release posting site. Some lead to Free Republic. And some lead to a Google Groups post by someone named Tony Terch, who claims to be quoting a letter from Cindy Sheehan.

She has denied saying it.

“COOPER:
You were also quoted as saying, “My son joined the Army to protect
America, not Israel. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of
Palestine and you’ll stop the terrorism.” How responsible do you
believe Israel is for the amount of terrorism in the world? SHEEHAN: I didn’t say that.

COOPER: You didn’t say that? OK.

SHEEHAN:
I didn’t—I didn’t say—I didn’t say that my son died for Israel. I’ve
never said that. I saw somebody wrote that and it wasn’t my words.
Those aren’t even words that I would say.

I do believe that
the Palestinian issue is a hot issue that needs to be solved and it
needs to be more fair and equitable but I never said my son died for
Israel.”

That doesn’t necessarily make it false, but it should cast some level of doubt.

If there’s a better source than a second-hand quote from Google Groups, I’d be interested to hear it.

It says nothing. Almost the entire world, including most Israelis, say Israel should pull out of Gaza. It’s not a fringe position. But the idea that the US fights wars for Israel is a fringe position.

I don’t think Sheehan is anti-Semitic. I think she’s a fool who is unaware that her words are loaded with baggage.

Oh, dear. Another reasonable, moderate, centrist prowar voice turns out to be a McCarthyite just below the surface. Color me shocked, shocked.

Today, you praise the decision of the Sharon government to pull out of Gaza. I’m not going to David Duke’s web page on my work computer, but I’d imagine that I could find David Duke encouraging Israel to pull out of Gaza.

What does that say about you? Absolutely nothing, right?