Cindy’s anti-war army

As Sheehan, mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, protests the war near US President George W. Bush’s ranch in Texas, its foes see a chance for an antiwar movement.

‘‘We’ve been missing this galvanising, iconic figure,’’ said Karen Bradley, a volunteer for the liberal MoveOn.org, which coordinated about 1,600 candlelight vigils across the country on Wednesday.

It’s worrying to Kristinn Taylor, an organiser for FreeRepublic.com, a MoveOn counterpart on the right, who recruited a small group of conservatives to hold a counter-protest on Wednesday night. Outnumbered 50 to 1, they came bearing a banner proclaiming: ‘‘God Bless Our Soldiers, Liberating the World of One Tyrant at a Time.’’

In a distinct minority, the conservatives held their own as verbal skirmishes erupted with antiwar crowd. Tom Fahey told a Free Republic demonstrators he wouldn’t send his kids ‘‘to die for you and George Bush’’.

‘‘Believe me, honey, I wouldn’t send mine to die for you, either,’’ came the retort from a woman, who offered only her pseudonym, Just A. Nobody.

To which Fahey returned, ‘‘They say Cindy Sheehan is the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement. I think yeah. We’re going to bring the kids back home.’’ —LAT/WP