Photos from Camp Casey, Cindy Returns, Vets Protest Waco VA Closure

Cindy Sheehan landed at Waco regional airport yesterday to resume her vigil at the driveway of the Bush vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas. After being greeted by dozens of supporters, and a crush of local and national media, Cindy quickly made her way to Camp Casey. Visibly exhausted from having attended to her mother in California who suffered a stroke, the travel, August heat of Texas, and the emotional impact of returning to Crawford, she had to work hard for even a smile. Under an umbrella of media microphones and cameras, Cindy chose to not speak. Instead she let a newly arrived Gold Star Family talk about their recent loss of their son, and husband, to the Iraq War.

After a brief stop at the original Camp Casey encampment where she had lived in the now infamous ditch during the first week of her vigil, she quickly made her way to the new Camp Casey II – complete with a massive tent, another set of hundreds of crosses, and better support services for Cindy and guests.

Later that evening, feeling and looking a lot better, Cindy joined the camp for dinner. After Joan Baez’s now nightly performance, Cindy took the stage. Cindy explained that she was doing this not only for Casey and the hundreds of US troops killed, and those now in caught in an illegal war, but also for the tens of thousands of Iraqis how have been killed. She explained that our government told Casey that the Iraqi people would welcome him with candy and roses. Yet he was killed, not by terrorists, but by insurgents fighting an occupation they did not want. She later brought the crowd to tears with her stories of Casey as a child.

Earlier in the day, dozens of veterans and supporters trekked from Camp Casey to Waco and joined local activists in a protest to keep the local VA hospital open. After two years of uncertainty, the hospital is on the chopping block. Some surmise that because the hospital specializes in mental health, that scarce veteran benefit resources will be shifted to VA hospitals that deal with the more visible injuries of the ongoing war without end.