While debating conservative pundit David Horowitz on Ron Reagan’s MSNBC show the other night, I was struck by the desperation with which supporters of the war have turned their fury on Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq who has been trying to get an audience with President Bush.

Horowitz, the former left-wing zealot who is now a right-wing zealot, described the woman who has camped out near Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch as “hateful,” accused her of dishonoring the memory of her son and promised that if Sheehan and other anti-war activists succeed in bringing an end to the occupation of Iraq then “rivers of blood” will flow in the streets of America. It was a remarkable performance, so much so that even Horowitz admitted that he was “emotional” about the subject.

Of course, Horowitz is wrong, on every point. But it is difficult to get angry with him, or even to take his ranting seriously. When Reagan asked me if I wanted to “dignify” Horowitz’s comments with a response, I declined, except to express a measure of sympathy for Horowitz and other true believers who have become so frenzied in their need to defend the Iraq imbroglio that they feel they must attack a grieving mother who wants to make sure that no more parents will have to bury their sons and daughters as a result of the Bush administration’s arrogance.

The rapidly dwindling minority of Americans who continue to search for some rationale for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq has been driven to the brink of breakdown by the success of Sheehan’s protest. Go to the website of William F. Buckley’s National Review magazine and you will find Sheehan described in headlines as “nutty,” dismissed by columnists as “the mouthpiece… of howling-at-the-moon, bile-spewing Bush haters” and accused of “sucking up intellectual air” that, presumably, would be better utilized by Condoleezza Rice explaining once more that it would be wrong to read too much into the August 6, 2001, briefing document that declared: “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.” Human Events, the conservative weekly newspaper, dismisses Sheehan as a “professional griever” who “can claim to be in perpetual mourning for her fallen son” — as if there is some time limit on maternal sorrow over the death of a child.

Fox News Channel spinner-in-chief Bill O’Reilly accuses Sheehan of being “in bed with the radical left,” including — horrors! — “9-11 families” that are still seeking answers about whether, in the first months of 2001, the Bush administration was more focused on finding excuses to attack Iraq than on protecting Americans from terrorism. And Rush Limbaugh was on the radio the other day ranting about how, “(Sheehan’s) story is nothing more than forged documents. There’s nothing about it that’s real…” (Just to clarify for Limbaugh listeners: Cindy Sheehan’s 24-year-old son Casey really did die in Iraq, and his mother really would like to talk with President Bush about all those claims regarding WMDs and al-Qaida ties that the administration used to peddle the “case” for war.)

The pro-war pundits who continue to defend the occupation of Iraq are freaked out by the fact that a grieving mother is calling into question their claim that the only way to “support the troops” is by keeping them in the frontlines of George W. Bush’s failed experiment. Bush backers are horrified that Sheehan’s sincere and patriotic anti-war voice has captured the nation’s attention.

What the pro-war crowd does not understand is that Cindy Sheehan is not inspiring opposition to the occupation. She is merely putting a face on the mainstream sentiments of a country that has stopped believing the president’s promises with regard to Iraq. According to the latest Newsweek poll, 61 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush’s handing of the war, while just 26 percent support the president’s argument that large numbers of U.S. military personnel should remain in Iraq for as long as it takes to achieve the administration’s goals there.

The supporters of this war have run out of convincing lies and effective emotional appeals. Now, they are reduced to attacking the grieving mothers of dead soldiers. Samuel Johnson suggested that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. But, with their attacks on Cindy Sheehan, the apologists for George Bush’s infamy have found a new and darker refuge.