The peace activist Cindy Sheehan has announced she is stepping down from her role as a leading campaigner against the Iraq War. Sheehan rose to prominence after staging a camp-out to pressure President Bush to meet her as he vacationed at his Crawford estate in August of 2005. Sheehan named it Camp Casey in honor of her son who was killed in Iraq the previous year. In a letter released on Memorial Day, Sheehan said she is stepping down in part because of hostility from Democrats who she’s criticized for supporting the war. Sheehan also cited repeated threats on her life, strains on her health and family, and divisions inside the peace movement. Writing of her son, Sheehan says: “I have tried ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months.” Sheehan goes on to write: “I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the [U.S.] … but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. … I am getting out before it totally consumes me or any more people that I love and the rest of my resources.”