Pro-War Supporters Take to the Streets

59 Percent of Americans Favor Eventual Withdrawal of U.S. Forces from Iraq

ByABC News
February 11, 2009, 6:20 PM

July 23, 2007— -- Cindy is a middle-aged woman with a son in the military. She visits the army's Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington each week to speak with wounded troops returning from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Monday she stood at the side of the road leading to Arlington National Cemetery holding signs voicing her support for the troops. Under the oppressively hot July sun, she stood for hours wearing a t-shirt with a heart-shaped American flag in the center and "Honor Our Troops" written proudly across the chest.

She was not alone, however. Cindy was one of a group of pro-war protestors waging an ideological counterattack to the anti-war supporters also set up on the street.

Opponents of the war "helped to defeat American in Vietnam, and we're not going to let them do that in Iraq," she explained.

Cindy's passionate support for the Iraq war and the service men and woman in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan is evident to anyone who speaks with her.

A single question about the war posed to Cindy envokes an intense emotional response. She will speak passionately about the sacrifices being made by US troops completing reconstruction work in Iraq or explain the serious threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Cindy is, in short, an American who is righteously using her first amendment rights.

On the opposite side of the street stood another Cindy, one notorious for her opposition to the war.

Activist and anti-war leader Cindy Sheehan spoke to a group of some two hundred war protestors on Monday, equally devoted and passionate in their calls to end the war and bring the troops home.

Central to the debate over the war are questions as basic as the fate of American troops, the legacy of the Bush administration, and national security.

The majority of the American public -- 59 percent -- now favors an eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post.