An Iowa woman was in Washington, D.C., Wednesday to call for an end to the war in Iraq. Susan Dinsdale was invited to stand beside the two top Democrats in Congress to make her case at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol. During a telephone interview with Radio Iowa afterwards, Dinsdale said she made the trip because of her son who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
"Everything I do, I do it for him and others like him and other moms," she said. Dinsdale’s 26-year-old son, Jesse, has just been honorably discharged from the Army and is back in Iowa. Dinsdale said she checked with him before going to D.C. "I don’t ever want him to feel like his service was in vain, so I asked him, I said, ‘Do you feel like people wanting to end this war and bring our troops home is demoralizing?’ He told me, ‘Hell no, mom. It makes me feel good that people want this to end,’" she said.
Dinsdale said she believes the U.S. should have a strong military, but the mission in Iraq is weakening it. "I am passionate about ending this war and bringing our soldiers home safely," she said. Dinsdale was flown to D.C. by "Americans Against Escalation in Iraq" and she met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid before the two leaders met at the White House with President Bush.
Dinsdale is a Democratic Party activist who was among a group of 100 Iowa women who endorsed Chet Culver just before last June’s gubernatorial primary. Culver, as you may know, won that primary and was elected Iowa’s governor in November.