AP: Texas

08/11/2005

By ANGELA K. BROWN  / Associated Press

As a makeshift campsite of war protesters grew Thursday along a road leading to President Bush's ranch, they began facing increased antagonism from locals and opposition from some military families.

More drivers are speeding and blaring horns continuously as they pass the camp, which started Saturday as grieving mother Cindy Sheehan's simple peace vigil. It has grown to about 100 people, with more expected from across the nation.

On Internet chat rooms and blogs, some organizations and soldiers' relatives are criticizing the protest, saying participants are trying to promote a left-wing agenda and lower troop morale. They say Sheehan does not represent their views on the war with Iraq.

"You have hundreds of people protesting there; you have thousands upon thousands who are not," Becky Davis of Orrington, Maine, who has three sons in the military, told The Associated Press. "A lot of military families I've talked to think it's almost sickening to watch."

But protesters say they support the troops.

"We can be proud of our soldiers and ashamed of our government at the same time," said Tammara Rosenleaf, whose husband is stationed at Fort Hood and is to be deployed to Iraq this fall.

Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq last year, said thousands of supporters — including many service members' relatives — have told her they believe the war is wrong and that troops should come home now.

Protesters are digging in their heels, vowing to stay at their tents in the heat or rain until Bush talks to Sheehan or his five-week ranch visit ends later this month.

"I don't understand why he can't take an hour to speak to somebody whose life he has devastated," Sheehan said Thursday.

Bush, in a news conference Thursday after his ranch meeting with defense and foreign policy teams, said he has tried to comfort many slain soldiers' relatives and that he grieves for each loss. He did not say whether he will meet with Sheehan.

"Listen: I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position," Bush said. "And I thought long and hard about her position. I've heard her position from others, which is: Get out of Iraq now. And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run if we were to do so."

Although authorities have not arrested anyone or forced the protesters to move, more residents have complained about the group parking on the edge of private property or blocking an intersecting road, according to the McLennan County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies went to the site Thursday with county health inspectors to see if conditions were sanitary but said they found no problems. Protesters said they have used restrooms at the Crawford Peace House several miles away but that portable toilets will be brought to the camp.

Austin attorney James C. Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, went to the site Thursday to make sure the group's rights were not being violated. He said he may file a federal lawsuit seeking to allow the protesters closer to Bush's ranch.

Davis said she has not heard of organized efforts to counter Sheehan's protest but that many military families wish it would end.

Davis acknowledged that she doesn't know how she would react if one of her sons died in Iraq. But she said she would still support the war because she believes Saddam Hussein was an inhumane dictator who posed a direct threat to the U.S.

"My sons made me promise not to go off the deep end and protest if they got killed ... (because) they were doing what they wanted to do," Davis said. "They volunteered, and they very much believe in their mission."