'I feel I'm carrying the world on my shoulders' (Cindy Sheehan)

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After Cindy Sheehan's son died in Iraq, her protest outside Bush's Texas ranch became a symbol of opposition to the war. Duncan Campbell joins her as she brings her campaign to Britain
When Casey Sheehan joined the army in May 2000, he was assured that he would never see combat. Four years later, he was killed in Iraq. Over the summer, his mother, Cindy, pitched a tent in front of George Bush's Texas ranch. Others joined what was to become known as Camp Casey. Soon, Cindy Sheehan, a housewife and mature student, was the face of the opposition to the president's Iraq policy - and a target of virulent abuse from right-wing commentators. Now she is in Britain for the first time, joining the anti-war movement here.
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"This is the 21st century - killing is barbaric," she says on a taxi ride from Heathrow into central London, having just flown in from New York. "I don't buy into the fact that George Bush and Tony Blair can't be called terrorists because they are elected officials. This occupation of Iraq is killing innocent people by the thousand." Cindy, who has three surviving children, is weary. She's had to cram her six-foot frame into economy class for the trip, and, besides, her life has become an exhausting series of meetings, rallies, interviews, speeches and anti-war campaigning. She has come a long way from her old life in Vacaville, California - not the sort of place normally associated with political activism. Camp Casey has closed down, at least for the winter, but Cindy remains a powerful symbol of the anti-war movement. Here is a mother who lost her eldest child in a war that was declared, she believes, on dubious grounds. She wants to make sure that the government is called to account.
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During this trip to Britain, she will address Saturday's International Peace Conference (organised by the Stop the War Coalition), and will also meet members of the Scottish parliament and fellow activists, including Britons who have lost their sons or brothers in the war. Then it will be back to her new home in Berkeley and on with the work for her new book - about how one person can have a political impact by just getting on with it. She is very unimpressed with Bush's rationale for the war. "He keeps coming up with the same inane speech as though that's going to rally people back to support him. As for his 'national strategy for victory' - wouldn't it have been nice if they had started to plan for that before they invaded in the first place and killed so many brave young Americans like Casey? It's gratifying that America is now opening its eyes and I'm not so wacky and out there by myself any more. We are not the 'extreme' people any more. Look at the polls, George Bush, you're the one who's at the extremes."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,12809,1663388,00.html