Three American soldiers were killed in combat in the Middle East during the week that President Obama spent vacationing on the Vineyard. Three more mothers lost their children, a sacrifice with which Cindy Sheehan is all too familiar. In 2004, her elder son Casey, then 24 years old, became one more casualty in a war she considers “a hopeless cause,” and “destined for ruin or disaster.”

Last week, Ms. Sheehan called her own troops, a collection of anti-war activists drawn from around the country, to the Vineyard to serve as reminders that the loss of life is ongoing, and to breathe life back into a movement that she has seen all but evaporate in the wake of a new presidential administration.

“It seems that the anti-war movement has disappeared from the face of the earth,” said Ms. Sheehan in an interview Saturday morning. “There’s no protest, [and] there’s very little opposition to Obama and the foreign policy right now.”

Still, she refuses to abandon her mission. “President Obama is here, and I’m still opposed to the policies that he’s carrying out and escalating from the Bush administration,” she said. To those who consider it inappropriate to intrude on the President’s personal vacation, she responded: “When you have troops committed, tens of thousands of troops committed . . . it’s not appropriate to have a lavish vacation.”

Ms. Sheehan staged similar protests during George W. Bush’s presidential vacations, camping out with other protestors outside of his ranch in Crawford, Tex. She doesn’t see why she should not hold President Obama to the same standard. “[People opposed to this week’s protests] are mostly people who didn’t say that when I was harassing George Bush on his vacation.”

This fact leads her to a difficult assumption. “I’m coming to a conclusion that I don’t want to come to . . . that maybe it was just an anti-Bush movement and not an anti-war movement. There [are] still some good organizations that are working hard, but it seems like the large organizations . . . only [oppose] the policies if there is a Republican in office.”

Ms. Sheehan, on the other hand, has not wavered in her protests since she began her mission. In January of 2005, she founded the nonprofit organization Gold Star Families for Peace, which was comprised of people who had lost loved ones in the war. Since then, she has traveled throughout the country to speak at rallies and events.

“I’ve been the one that has been consistent this whole time,” she said. “Five and a half years I’ve been saying exactly the same thing.” Her goal is to pull troops out of the Middle East immediately. “These wars . . . are based on lies. They should never have been fought . . . What our government is doing is increasing hatred towards the United States. Increasing violence. And violence only causes more violence. It doesn’t solve anything.”

Her philosophies have inspired as much opposition as they have support. But seated in the comfortable parlor of a modest West Tisbury inn on a rainy Saturday morning, the soft-spoken Ms. Sheehan showed that her primary motivations are as a grieving mother. She began to weep softly as she described the son she lost. “He was so even-tempered, and he was a very good big brother to his brother and two sisters. He was a wonderful son. He never gave us any trouble.”

Casey was 21 years old when he enlisted in the Army, enticed by promises that the military would pay for his education. Three years later, he was serving as a mechanic when his unit was dispatched on a combat mission. Casey was shot and killed within minutes.

“I miss him so much,” said Ms. Sheehan. “It never gets easier . . . People mistake what I’m doing. I’m just doing it so other mothers don’t have to feel what I feel. But I haven’t been very successful.” The regret is evident through her tears. “Other mothers all over the world are losing their children. I just don’t want that to happen.”

Saturday’s planned vigil at Five Corners was cancelled due to the rainfall, another glitch in the week’s agenda. “The unfortunate passing of Senator Kennedy kind of forced us to shift focus, and rightly so,” said Ms. Sheehan. “I have extended my condolences to the family and to the people of Massachusetts and the people of this country who lost a leading progressive and somebody who was against the war in Iraq from the beginning.”

Demonstrations on the Island this week were limited to some press events and a Saturday night speaking event at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

Gold Star Families for Peace fell out of focus a bit during Ms. Sheehan’s campaign for Congress in 2008. Now that the campaign is over, she hopes to reinvigorate the Gold Star movement. Her goal this week was to bring the issue directly to “the person that theoretically has the power to end [the war],” President Obama.

“No matter what I think about Obama, I know he’s not stupid,” she said. “We were out by the hundreds of thousands when Bush was President and we had no chance of achieving our goals. Now, why aren’t we out there, hundreds of thousands of us, when there may be a chance of achieving our goals? Is it that we don’t want to achieve our goals, or is it that we don’t want to finally be shown incontrovertibly that it doesn’t matter what party is in power, that they are the war party?”

For the most part, Ms. Sheehan said that Vineyarders have been extremely supportive of her cause. “It’s been nothing but marvelous since I’ve been here,” she said. “Once I put it out there that I was coming, we were just flooded with support. Everyone has just been so welcoming and hospitable.” And while she knows that she still faces heated opposition with her vacation-crashing tactics, she will not stop until her goal is realized.

“If these things are still going on with the next President, I’ll still be there,” she said.