Antiwar vigil drawing support

CRAWFORD, Texas -- The mother of a fallen US soldier who started a quiet roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch last weekend is drawing supporters from across the nation.

Dozens of people have joined her, and others have sent flowers and food. One activist called her ''the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement."

Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., says she was surprised at the response.

''Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said yesterday under a tent where she has slept since Saturday. ''But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard."

But Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the Washington, D.C., chapter of FreeRepublic.com, which has held pro-troop rallies, said Sheehan's actions are misguided and hurt troop morale.

''She has a political agenda that goes way beyond her son's death in combat," Taylor said.

On Saturday, two high-level Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan for about 20 minutes. Sheehan called the brief meeting ''pointless" and still wants to talk to the president.

Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, in April 2004 just five days after he arrived.

Two months later, Sheehan was among grieving military family members who met with Bush at Fort Lewis, near Seattle.

Since then, she said, various government and independent commission reports have disputed the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had mass-killing chemical and biological weapons -- a main justification for the March 2003 invasion.

Yesterday, a coalition of antiwar groups in Washington called on Bush to speak with Sheehan, who they say has helped to unify the peace movement.

''Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement," said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. ''She's tired, fed up, and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her."

At her makeshift camp in muddy ditches off the two-lane, winding road leading to Bush's ranch, Sheehan has spent the past several days talking to reporters, hugging fellow protesters, and taking brief breaks to eat sandwiches and fruit brought by supporters.

Although she doesn't expect Bush to meet with her in Crawford, she says if he did she would ask him whether he has encouraged his twin daughters to enlist.

''I want him to quit using my son's death to justify more killing," she said. ''The only way he can honor my son's death is to bring the troops home."