Dusty Rhoades, in his Aug. 14 column, discovers another patriot who trumpets the same message the terrorists do: Cindy Sheehan, the “grieving” mother with her own public relations firm, and now a media darling who exploits her son’s death to promote surrender in Iraq, a liar who oozed compliments after first meeting with President Bush, who now re-describes the event and seeks another meeting to harangue him with her foreign policy prescriptions.

Rhoades describes her first meeting rendition as being “polite,” when the only evaluation possible is that she lied either in June 2004 or has been lying ever since. The media treated her trip to the President’s ranch as a solitary vigil by a grieving mother who sought solace, ignoring her continuing activities and associations.

The reality is otherwise; she took her red, white and blue school bus, emblazoned with the words, “Impeachment Tour” to Crawford, Texas, with an entourage of fellow crackpots, including one group that raised funds for the so-called “insurgents” in Iraq.

This is patriotism in the new mad world as defined by the wackos who “support our troops” but not their “unholy mission,” who mouth the enemy’s propaganda, but call it dissent, who revel in perceived indelicacies at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, but never the steadfastness and heroism of troops on a noble mission.

President Bush has given you straight answers, but you choose not to listen, espousing instead a patriotism worthy of Jane Fonda, the vacuous celebrity who promises to join Mrs. Sheehan’s ranks, along with the despicable Michael Moore and other such worthies.

Richard Kania