Anti-war activist protests near Bush ranch

By Patricia Wilson

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – President George W. Bush’s
hopes for a brief reprieve from the bitter Iraq war debate were
dashed on Friday when peace activist Cindy Sheehan rallied her
troops in protest near his central Texas ranch.

Bush is spending a six-day Thanksgiving break at “Prairie
Chapel,” about 8 miles from the tiny town of Crawford where
Sheehan dedicated a memorial garden to her son Casey, a soldier
who died in Iraq last year.

“We’re here to say that the killing has to stop and we’re
not going away,” Sheehan told scores of supporters. “We want
people to be held accountable and just because someone’s
president of the United States, it doesn’t guarantee them
immunity from accountability.”

The California mother unveiled a stone carved with the
words “Sheehan’s Stand” set among cactus and yucca plants. The
ceremony was punctuated by hecklers in passing pickup trucks,
one of whom shouted, “Go home you freakin’ losers!”

Sheehan, who plans to lead an anti-war rally on Saturday
and participate in an interfaith service on Sunday, became an
icon for the peace movement during a 26-day vigil outside
Bush’s ranch in the summer.

She took her protest to Washington in September where she
was arrested for demonstrating without a permit outside the
White House.

With Bush out of public sight working and biking on his
1,600-acre (648-hectare) ranch, Sheehan helped fill a news void
for the White House press corps — including five television
networks — that travels with the president.

Protesters say they will come to Crawford every time Bush
visits his ranch. Supporters vowed to do the same.

Across the street from the Yellow Rose gift shop, Vietnam
War veteran James Vergauwen stood with a sign reading: “The
price of freedom is not free.” He and others will stage a
pro-Bush rally on Saturday.

“I didn’t like the idea of her calling the president a liar
and a killer,” Vergauwen said.

‘HEAVY TRAFFIC’

Crawford — population 700, one traffic signal — prepared
for the influx by erecting a large warning sign for motorists a
mile or so outside town that flashed the words: “Expect heavy
traffic Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

With the American death toll in Iraq at more than 2,000 and
Democrats openly questioning the administration’s case for war
and its progress, public opinion has shifted and Bush’s
credibility has suffered. Polls show his job approval at the
lowest of his presidency.

Amid political pressure for a course correction in Iraq,
U.S. officials have tried to reassure Americans that sufficient
progress is being made in training Iraqi forces to possibly
permit some U.S. troops to leave.

“I suspect that American forces are not going to be needed
in the numbers that they’re there for all that much longer,
because Iraqis are continuing to make progress in function, not
just in numbers, but in their capabilities to do certain
functions,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN
earlier this week.

Rice’s comments came after an acrimonious debate in
Congress about Bush’s Iraq policy including a demand by one of
the most hawkish Democratic members, Pennsylvania Rep. John
Murtha, that U.S. forces be withdrawn as quickly as possible.

The United States has 150,000 troops in Iraq, boosted from
the usual 138,000 to tighten security for an October referendum
and December elections.