A Valley mother speaks out on the war in Iraq

[Tiger in Spain 0]

A Valley mother speaks out on the war in Iraq

Rhonda Winfield is, like Cindy Sheehan, a member of an exclusive club.

Both lost sons to the war in Iraq - Winfield losing Jason Redifer, 19, of Stuarts Draft, on Jan. 31 when the Humvee in which he was traveling in the Babil Province south of Baghdad ran over an improvised explosive device; Sheehan losing Casey Sheehan, 24, of Vacaville, Calif., who was killed in the midst of a series of grenade and small-arms-fire attacks on Sadr City on April 4, 2004.

Both have also gained international attention for sharing their thoughts and feelings about what happened to their sons - the BBC did a piece on Winfield's efforts to deal with Redifer's passing earlier this month, while the BBC and just about everybody else in the worldwide news media has given coverage to Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, to request a meeting with the president to, among other things, ask that he begin an immediate withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq.

Winfield, for her part, is not planning to request a meeting with President Bush to ask him to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq anytime soon. She supports the continuation of the war effort - and believes her son would as well.

"I believe he would have thanked the president for making the decision that he felt was the right decision, for having the courage to stand up and to send people to defend this country, and to thank him for our continued freedoms," Winfield told The Augusta Free Press.

"I honestly believe that he would tell him, first of all, that he realized very quickly that no one can ever anticipate the horrors of war, and especially in a young, idealistic mind. And especially growing up in this country where we have believed that good will prevail over evil," Winfield said.

"I think he would tell him that while he realized he was not prepared, and while he went there thinking that it was to protect our freedoms, that he realized that it was more of a twofold mission, because it was also for the protection of the Iraqis. And that he realized when he looked into the eyes of those children and saw hope, and you could see that there was hope for the first time in their lives and the lives of all of their relatives before them, that there was something even greater about the cause for going," Winfield said.

Sheehan's vigil - which is continuing in the wake of her departure from Crawford late last week after she learned that her 74-year-old mother had suffered a stroke - has generated a storm of antiwar and prowar protests.

Winfield said Sheehan "has every right" to speak her mind on the issue - though she personally disagrees with the positions being advanced by Sheehan.

"If we ever meet, the first thing I would want to do is just hug her and cry with her and tell her that while no one can ever feel someone's loss, we are certainly in a very unique club that no one wants to be a member of. And that I feel like the freedoms that our sons died for are one of the things that allows her to be where she is, doing what she's doing, saying what she's saying," Winfield said.

"We are so blessed to be in a country where we can speak out our disagreements with the people who are put in office. I certainly think that she has earned the right to have her opinion and to say it to anyone that would listen," Winfield said.

"I would just try to encourage her to remember that it is her opinion, and that she does not speak for all of the survivors, and I would explain to her why I felt that way, and what it means to have had our son to fight for that," Winfield said.

"I also think that there's a small part where some people have taken advantage of her absolute distress and grief," Winfield said. "When I read that there was a bus that had taken her to Crawford, I was pretty sure that she had not purchased a tour bus herself and painted 'Impeach Bush' on the side."

"Like with many things, there are a lot of people willing to swoop in and kind of pick you up for their own cause, and I know it's easy to get caught up in those sorts of things," said Winfield, noting that she has been careful not to get immersed in the politics of the ongoing war effort herself.

"If I can find an avenue in which to do that where I would feel comfortable, I would be honored to do it. Because I just think in any situation, you need to have both sides presented," Winfield said.

"For this country, the people who have not lost someone to this war, to the people that the war is just a regular update on the evening news, it is very hard for them to know what to think about the information," Winfield said. "We're not in Iraq. We're here. We don't have someone who's there telling us their viewpoints about what's going on there. We get it from our newspapers and TV and however we can.

"This is just one more thing that is dividing our country. If you have a balanced representation, you are much better able to view all the facts and come to an opinion," Winfield said.

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[Tigermike 3,840]

Why is Rhonda Winfield not getting the publicity that Cindy Sheehan is?

[Tiger in Spain 0]

She doesn't fit the "victimhood" mold of their current star.

[AURaptor 1,137]

Why is Rhonda Winfield not getting the publicity that Cindy Sheehan is?

175815[/snapback]

Also, she does not fit into the template that the main stream LEFT WING media wants to promote. Were they ( the media) to send a boat load of camera/ satilite trucks to interview her, the story would quickly drive its self, as was the case in that ditch in Crawford.