Here's an open letter to the self proclaimed "Rosa Parks of the Peace Movement":

Ms. Sheehan,

As a longtime advocate for peace, I am appalled at your grandstanding. While I have tried to work for peace since I was old enough to stand the concept, you apparently had no problem with the concept of war even as you raised your son and watched him pack to head away to Iraq in a war he was WILLINGLY fighting. In fact, you seemed perfectly content to watch OTHER mothers send their children to die, you simply rose up in action when your own son lost his life, which was, again, given willingly as he served his country.

Yours are not the actions of a pacifist, but of a selfish woman who has little concept of the price of that freedom which allows you to camp out in protest.

Have you ever studied the words of the Vietnamese generals who have repeatedly stated that they continued the war with the US BECAUSE of the televised actions of the protestors? In short, they protracted a war they would have surrendered because they had hope of winning, costing thousands of additional human lives. This war is no different. Iraqi insurgents are empowered by the thought that they are winning the propaganda war, and the actions of yourself and other protestors only serve to heighten that illusion.

I feel for the loss of your son, Ms. Sheehan, but no more or less than I feel for the loss of every life in this war, American or Iraqi. One of the greatest tragedies of our race is that we have not yet reached a point where our ideological differences can be solved without taking the life of another, and it is heartbreaking to see that tragedy played out on a daily basis.

But as a pacifist, I also understand that the mindset that brought down the World Trade Center, the mindset that bombs busses in Israel and train stations in London, is a mindset that CANNOT be allowed to prevail. Otherwise, I and other pacifists will have lost. It is a tragic paradox that peace sometimes must be defended at the point of a gun, but it is a true paradox nonetheless.

You have received your 15 minutes of fame, Ms. Sheehan. As you've partied with the likes of Judy Collins and other celebrities who have come to defend your cause, some other mother's son is wondering if the newest footage of your vigil will inspire yet another militant Iraqi to launch an artillery shell into his tent.

I cannot say much more except that I will pray for you, Ms. Sheehan.