Scripps Howard from the DC Examiner, on page 5 at link
Since spring, long before an angry and loony mom named Cindy Sheehan set up camp outside President Bushâs Texas ranch, anti-war activists have been holding vigils outside Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday nights. Organizers say they werenât getting much media attention â even after a pro-war group began gathering to protest the vigils.
So how long have the protests against the protests been going on?
Until last week, that is. Thatâs when an online news service with politically conservative ties released a special report suggesting the vigils were actually protests aimed at wounded soldiers.
You remember reading about that - the signs made all the Rantburgers apoplectic.
Now, vigil organizers are alleging that the story is part of a strategy ...
Karl, is that you?
... by Bush supporters to hurt war protestersâ ...
Oh, so they were protesting!
... credibility in the wake of Sheehanâs public-relations success and sinking support for the war.
How about rage about taunting the wounded warriors as a motivation for the counter-protests?
| They had credibility? Who knew? |
âItâs all part of a smear campaign,â Medea Benjamin, a communist liberal anti-war activist from San Francisco and a co-founder of CodePink, one of the communist groups organizing the vigils, said in a telephone interview. Sheehan, the mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, has gotten help from liberal donors, liberal public-relations firms and liberal groups including CodePink.
Friday night at Walter Reed, the counterprotesters outnumbered the 20 or so vigil participants by a 3-to-1 margin. They waved flags, yelled at anti-war activists and painted signs like this one: âCindy Sheehan Bride of Bin Laden.â
Oh, dear. That was in poor taste. I think Binny's got better taste than that.
They said a hospital should be off-limits for political demonstrations, no matter the message.
One counterprotester, Vietnam veteran Ted Sampley, said he had come from Kinston, N.C., for the day, to give the anti-war crowd a piece of his mind. âOur wounded soldiers are not barter for them to use to try to push their cause,â he said. âItâs very transparent what theyâre doing. They donât care about soldiersâ health benefits. This is deja vu, Vietnam, Jane Fonda, John Kerry, all over again.â
Laura Costas of Silver Spring, Md., one of the vigil participants, said her brother served 14 months in Iraq with the Army and was injured when an explosive device hit his unarmored Humvee.
And that really was the end of the article. Unarmored humvee. The writer really could've taken off on that! 
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