Being in Crawford, Texas with Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed fighting in Iraq, was like watching history in the making. We at Global Exchange and CODEPINK had been working with Cindy for the past year, organizing speaking engagements for her, touring with her during the lead up to the presidential election, and taping radio ads calling for the troops to come home now. When she called us about her idea of holding a vigil in Crawford to call for an end to the Iraq occupation, we jumped on board and were with her from day one.

The vigil quickly transformed from Cindy and a few supporters sitting on lawn chairs a few miles from Bush's ranch into a "happening"—with journalists, peace activists, supporters and detractors pouring in from all over the country. Every major news media outlet set up shop in the Crawford High School parking lot. Caravans of supporters trekked in from Alaska to Arkansas. Those who couldn't come sent roses, homemade cookies, money and stacks upon stacks of "love letters."

Other military families and veterans arrived in Crawford to reinforce Cindy's message. Religious leaders flew in to hold interfaith services. Iraqi-Americans hosted a lunch at the Crawford Peace House in Cindy's honor. Women marched to the gate of Bush's ranch with hundreds of letters for Laura Bush. Singers from Joan Baez to Steve Earle performed music that lifted everyone's spirits. Celebrities from Viggo Mortensen to Martin Sheen paid their respects.

The Crawford Peace House, a space created by Texas activists two years earlier, went from being a lonely outpost with only $121 in the bank and no phone service to a bustling center where legions of volunteers cooked hundreds of meals a day, hooked up a wireless communications hub, fielded thousands of calls daily, and set up a shuttle service to direct people to the campsite, the rallies, and the nearby airports.

Perhaps the most inspiring part of the vigil was the number of local Texans who got involved, many for the first time ever. There was the pot-bellied truck driver with his leather boots and cowboy hat who veered off the interstate after hearing a right-wing talk show host attack Cindy. "No one should attack a grieving mother," he told Cindy, as he gave her a box of chocolates. There were the young teenage girls who "snuck away" from their conservative parents to bring Cindy a poem they'd written in her son's honor. A few soldiers from Ft. Hood appeared to say they, too, wanted to know what "noble cause" they were being asked to give their lives for.

But the best was Fred Mattlage, a Crawford local bearing the same last name as the neighbor who fired his gun next to our camp to "hunt doves," or so he said. Fred apologized for the actions of his gun-toting cousin. He told us he was a veteran himself, having served in the 82nd Airborne Division, and he was having more and more doubts about this war. "I've come to the conclusion that Bush should apologize not only to Cindy Sheehan," he said, "but to the 1,800 other mothers who have lost their children in this war." Fred showed up just at the time that our campsite along the side of the road was becoming a safety hazard, and the neighbors were trying to get us evicted. He had an offer to make. "I have a solution to your camping problem," he said with a smile. "I own a one-acre plot smack in front of Bush's ranch, where the Secret Service is located. It's as close as you can get to the ranch, and it's all yours." Fred appeared like divine intervention, but then again, in Crawford, miracles happened every day. Two days later, Joan Baez was singing on Fred's land where the new camp was erected in record time.

We can't tell you how inspiring it has been to be by Cindy's side and see this movement blossom. Not only has it inspired people throughout the country, it has finally gotten the mainstream media to include the perspectives of people who believe the US should withdraw its troops now. As Cindy wrote in an opinion piece that was distributed to newspapers throughout the country by the Progressive Media Project, "After every supposed milestone in Iraq -- the capture of Saddam Hussein, the transition to Iraqi rule and most recently the Iraq election -- things just don't get better. U.S. soldiers and Iraqis continue to be killed in greater and greater numbers, the cost of the war skyrockets and there's no end in sight. ... Millions of Americans believe that the best thing we can do -- for our own security, for our soldiers, and for the Iraqi people -- is to bring the US troops home from Iraq now. Just because it's too late for Casey and the Sheehan family, why would we want another innocent life taken in the name of this ever-changing and unwinnable mission in Iraq?"

With the vigil in Crawford over at the end of August, we now move full-steam ahead planning for the big anti-war march and other peace events scheduled for Washington DC on September 24-26. Please join us in Washington (it's also the weekend of our Green Festival in DC!) as we continue to build a movement strong enough to force George Bush to put an end to this bloody war.