Bush refusal to meet mother 'galvanised' war protest

A bereaved mother who has spent weeks protesting against the Iraq war outside US President George Bush’s Texas ranch, has said his refusal to meet her only galvanised support for her cause.

Cindy Sheehan said she was glad Mr Bush had not heeded public calls to speak to her about her 24-year-old son’s death, as it had kept up momentum and ensured the protest continued.

“I look back on that, and I am very, very, very grateful he did not meet with me, because we have sparked and galvanised the peace movement,” she said.

“If he’d met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there.”

Ms Sheehan, 48, was speaking as war protesters packed up the peace camp and left for a three-week nationwide bus tour.

Her protest began on August 6 and snowballed into a massive outpouring of anti-war sentiment, attracting huge publicity.

She became the face of the anti-war movement and a new poll revealed that three out of four Americans had heard or read about her.

The protest, dubbed Camp Casey after Mrs Sheehan’s Army Specialist son, sparked more than 1,500 protests across the US.

And while Mr Bush would not meet her, he acknowledged her presence and said he did sympathise.

The site also became the focus of increased tension by supporters of the war. One neighbour fired gun shots into the air and another bulldozed a makeshift memorial for hundreds of American soldiers killed in Iraq.

Mrs Sheehan packed up the camp as Mr Bush ended his summer holidays to head back to Washington.

“I hope people will say that the Camp Casey movement sparked a peace movement that ended the war in Iraq,” she said.