CRAWFORD, Texas — The woman who led an anti-war protest since Aug. 6 near President Bush's ranch said yesterday that she is glad Bush never showed up to discuss her son's death in Iraq, saying the president's absence "galvanized the peace movement."

"If he'd met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there," Cindy Sheehan said.

Her comments came as war protesters packed up their campsite near the ranch and prepared to leave yesterday for a three-week bus tour that will stop in 25 states.

Buses on three routes will meet in Washington, D.C., for a Sept. 24 anti-war march.