George Bush is on vacation in Crawford, Texas, taking the same August-long break that he did in the summer before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The appeal of Crawford appears to be that it provides the President with an opportunity to put aside all the troubles of the world and to focus on fixing fences and clearing brush. After all, it was during his previous vacation that Bush ignored an August 6, 2001, briefing document titled: “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.”

Bush’s inner circle, a collection of neoconservative ideologues with an agenda of their own rather than an interest in what is best for the United States, made no effort in 2001 to steer the President’s attention toward pressing matters of national security. And they remain determined to keep the woefully disengaged chief executive focused on busy work around the ranch rather than life-and-death questions of how this country should position itself in a complex and dangerous world.

But this summer, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq named Cindy Sheehan is making it harder for Bush to ignore the truth that his decisions have led to the unnecessary deaths of more than 1,800 Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis, while making both the United States and Iraq more vulnerable to violence.

Sheehan’s 24-year-old son, Army Specialist Casey A. Sheehan, died on April 4, 2004–almost a year after Bush was dressed up in flight-suit drag to appear before a banner that declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq. Sheehan mourned, as any mother would. But then she organized, helping to found Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization of relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq who are demanding an end to the ill-fated occupation of that land and a redirection of US policy to achieve real security–as opposed to neoconservative misadventuring.

On August 3 of this year, Bush addressed the mounting death toll in Iraq with a pair of declarations:

1. “We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission.”

and

2. “The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause.”

Sheehan correctly identified Bush’s words as “asinine and hurtful.” And she headed for Crawford to try and confront the President on the August 6 anniversary of that neglected memorandum on bin Laden’s intentions.

Sheehan went to Crawford with a pair of messages for the vacationing president:

1. We want our loved ones sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation’s sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq immediately, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are?

and

2. We would like for him to explain this “noble cause” to us and ask him why (presidential daughters) Jenna and Barbara are not in harm’s way, if the cause is so noble.

Sheehan’s bottom line, and that of Gold Star Families for Peace, is a blunt truth that the President has failed to consider: that the best way to honor the sacrifices of those who have died in Iraq is to end the occupation and bring the troops home now.

So far, the President has refused to listen to Cindy Sheehan, who says, “The sound I do want to hear is the sound of a nation waking up.” But that wake-up call is being heard by the majority of Americans. In the latest Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll, 54 percent of Americans surveyed said the US made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq. That number is up eight points from July. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said the Bush Administration deliberately misled the public about the reasons for going to war. Fifty-eight percent said that, no matter how long US troops remain in Iraq, they will not be able to establish a stable, democratic government there.

George Bush has been listening for too long to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice. He should take a real vacation from the neocon fantasy factory of his misguided aides and sit down with someone who can introduce him to the reality of what is going on in Iraq and the world. The President should meet with Cindy Sheehan. And he should listen to this woman, who has sacrificed more than he or anyone in his inner circle ever has for America.