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War Protester Leaves Texas to Be With Her Sick Mother

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Times Staff Writer

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan said Thursday that she was leaving the tent camp she had set up near President Bush’s ranch because her mother had suffered a stroke in California.

Sheehan, 48, said she and her sister Dede Miller were flying to Los Angeles to join their mother, Shirley Miller, 74, who was receiving emergency treatment at an undisclosed location. Sheehan lives in Vacaville.

She said she hoped to return to Crawford within a day or two to resume her campaign to meet with Bush.

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“While I am gone, the other mothers of fallen soldiers in Iraq ... will keep up the pressure on the president to meet with us and answer questions about the war,” she said.

Sheehan’s 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in April 2004, and she and other family members were part of a small group that met briefly with Bush last year at Ft. Lewis, Wash.

Since then, she has said, her opposition to the war has intensified, and she wants another chance to discuss her views with the president.

Sheehan arrived in Crawford on Aug. 6 and pitched the first tent in what has come to be known as Camp Casey, a roadside encampment where scores of supporters have shown up to participate in her campaign.

She had vowed to stay in Crawford until Bush agreed to meet with her or until Aug. 31, shortly before the end of his five-week vacation.

Her abrupt departure, announced shortly after she learned of her mother’s stroke about 4 p.m., rattled the Camp Casey community.

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But those who remained said they would continue the effort.

“Of course we’re upset,” said Mimi Evans of Hyannis, Mass., as she marched down Prairie Chapel Road with other supporters who hoped to hand-deliver a letter to First Lady Laura Bush requesting a meeting to discuss the war.

“It’s actually had an energizing effect,” said Evans, whose son, a Marine, is about to be deployed to Fallouja, Iraq. “We all know that we have to take our message back to our hometowns after this is over anyway. Now we’re just starting to do that a little bit early.”

Nadia McCaffrey, whose son, Army National Guard Sgt. Patrick Ryan, was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said Sheehan’s absence would not diminish the galvanizing effect she had had on the antiwar movement.

“Nothing has changed,” said McCaffrey, 60, who came to Crawford from her home in Tracy, Calif. “This is going around the world, and we’re not going to stop.”

Earlier Thursday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said he thought Bush had made a mistake by not meeting with Sheehan in Crawford.

“I think the wise course of action ... would have been to immediately invite her to the ranch,” Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran, said in an interview on CNN’s “Situation Room.” “It should have been done when this whole thing started.”

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White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the president had already met once with Sheehan and had expressed sympathy for her loss, and that he did not agree with her position that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq immediately.

“He’s listened to ... [the] views of people like Ms. Sheehan, and he respects them, but he disagrees,” Perino said.

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