There have been many gentle yet firm responses to Cindy Sheehan (see here, here and here), and the very public way in which she is sharing her grief over the death of her son in Iraq.

Perhaps the most moving has been posted by Mohammed at Iraq The Model:

Ma'am, we asked for your nation's help and we asked you to stand with us in our war and your nation's act was (and still is) an act of ultimate courage and unmatched sense of humanity.

Our request is justified, death was our daily bread and a million Iraqi mothers were expecting death to knock on their doors at any second to claim someone from their families.

Your face doesn't look strange to me at all; I see it everyday on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours.

Mohammed makes the plea of a small voice in the face of evil, injustice, and violence against basic human rights. Ones we in America can easily take for granted.

Mohammed speaks to all the Cindy Sheehans of our nation, his nation, of the world. He speaks the hope, irrepressible but too often discouraged, of humanity.

What will we be motivated by? Our own comfort and safety? Merely our own concerns, and those not inconsequential but ultimately less urgent appeals of natural habitats, wage conditions, universal health care, more money for an education of already questionable value? Haven't we in the generations since WW II been looking for a heroic cause, for a noble purpose greater than ourselves?

Why not liberty and freedom? Why not the one thing from which those many other good things can flow? Freedom is never free. As Greyhawk says, "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Mohammed also declares the gratitude of all those who yearn to breathe free but as yet must struggle with every breath:

Your son sacrificed his life for a very noble cause…No, he sacrificed himself for the most precious value in this existence; that is freedom. His blood didn't go in vain; your son and our brethren are drawing a great example of selflessness.

God bless his free soul and God bless the souls of his comrades who are fighting evil. God bless the souls of Iraqis who suffered and died for the sake of freedom. God bless all the freedom lovers on earth.

(Greyhawk has set up a post to capture ongoing MILBLOG reaction to Cindy Sheehan. Check back through the day for links to more MILBLOG commentary.)

UPDATE: After posting, I came across extended posting on Cindy Sheehan over at Blackfive. It includes a link the Iraq The Model, as well as excellent quotes and discussion in comments. Also linked to Assumption of Command, who had the same idea I did but quite a bit earlier.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Via Dawn Patrol at the Mudville Gazette, see also a comparison of Mother Sheehan to a family that suffered catastrophic loss in WW II, over at Mike’s Noise.

(Linked as Covered Dish over at Basil's Blog.)