Give me a break.
Sheehan may be a bereaved mother, but right now she sure as hell is doing a good imitation of a leftist psycho hose beast. Have you been listening at all to the things she's been saying? She isn't looking for consolation. She's seething with hate.
And how does Sheehan's opinion neutralize the large number of Gold Star mothers who don't feel at all the way she does? Nobody's interviewing them.
I'm sorry, but tragedy does not automatically infer omniscience, or even moral authority. Her son re-enlisted, after the war had been going on for months. I dare say he had a different opinion of its value, and I would think his opinion counted for something, too.