Posted on 11/29/2003 1:32:23 AM PST by kattracks
President Bush's flight into Baghdad may have been dangerous, but he has told friends the part of the Iraq war he dreads the most is writing letters to the families of slain soldiers. The notes, however, are cherished by the grieving families."It was a brief note, probably a form letter, but the President took the time to thank me and remember Brian's sacrifice, and that does make a difference," said Ronald Slavenas of Genoa, Ill., whose son, helicopter pilot 1st Lt. Brian Slavenas, 30, died Nov. 2. "Nothing makes up for the loss, but it is good to know that he is being remembered."
Barbara Bucklew of Fort Carson, Colo., whose husband, Army Sgt. Ernest Bucklew, also died Nov. 2 in Fallujah, received one of the President's letters.
"Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy," Bucklew said as she read aloud. "Our nation will not forget Ernie's sacrifice and unselfish dedication in our efforts to make the world more peaceful and free."
Bucklew was among the military families who met the President at Fort Carson just before Thanksgiving.
She said Bush's visit to Baghdad was further proof that the commander-in-chief was aware of the sacrifice he was asking from his young troops.
"He was just a politician in my eyes before. Now I know he is a sincere man who told us how sorry he was," Bucklew said. "And that does help."
The President has sent out more than 400 of the letters so far. He will have to write a couple more because two soldiers were killed since his visit, one in Ramadi and a second in Mosul.
Before the war began, former President George Bush warned his son that sending such letters would be the most agonizing duty of his wartime presidency.
Bush has told friends that his dad was all too right, and that he has come to dread the letters.
Some of the families who received the letters saw the President's stealthy trip into Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day as another sign of his compassion.
"He did a wonderful thing," said Vera D'Agostino of Middlebury, Conn., whose grandson, Pfc. Anthony D'Agostino, was among 16 soldiers killed when an Army helicopter was shot down Nov. 2. D'Agostino would have turned 21 last month.
"It was necessary, but it made us cry," said Stewart Torres of Passaic, N.J., whose 24-year-old bother, 2nd Lt. Richard Torres, died last month when a rocket-propelled grenade tore apart his Humvee outside of Baghdad.
"We started crying because it was something Richard would have loved, the President there with the troops, honoring them," Torres said.
But Bush's lightning trip to Iraq was just a stunt to Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son, Jesus, 20, was killed in March.
"Bush goes and looks like he loves the troops with his posturing," said the grieving father, who will be among a dozen anti-war parents to visit Iraq next week.
Jeri Reed, a member of the dovish Military Families Speak Out, also was dismissive of Bush's Thanksgiving jaunt.
"It was obviously a big publicity ploy," said Reed, whose son has been in Iraq since March.
"He's saying that we're going to stay no matter what they do to us. Well, they're not doing anything to him. We don't need him going there, we need to bring the troops back here," she said.
Originally published on November 29, 2003
I don't believe for ONE minute that these are form letters. They may be typed by a Secretary using information given to her, but I believe the President reads, then signs each one individually. I don't consider it a 'form letter' because he's mentioning each soldier's life and career, and someone is having to do research to get that info. That shows a wonderful sense of compassion for the soldier's family.
They are preyed upon by leftist groups like Military Families Speaking Out and Global Exchange. Skillfully the communists work to turn the families' grief and sadness to anger and hate.
Yes, I saw (and was disgusted by) an article on Mrs. Slavenas' outburst. I would wager that Ron and his wife come from different backgrounds (he has a military tradition in his family and she doesn't) or it's as simple as politics--she may be (like so many others) an anti-Bush activist more than anything else, and if her son had been killed under Bill Clinton she would have kept her mouth shut. The "peace" movement is full of folks like that; just this week I responded to an ed letter by a local Democrat activist who is part of the local appeasenik group, who was basically making the President out to be a coward because he didn't make it to Vietnam, but was sending all these working class kids into harm's way in Iraq. The problem (which I pointed out with glee) was that he had never had any problem in '98, '99 or '00 with a military-loathing draft-dodger sending working class kids into Iraq and Kosovo, and he made no complaints when we lost 17 sailors on the Cole, but lamented the 17 dead from the Chinook crash.
I would bet it's tense in the Slavenas house, because the parents seem to have opposite views of the war their son died in. As for how Ron got quoted, probably the reporter researching the piece went looking for grieving families mentioned in recent articles. That would explain de Solar; his son died quite a while back, but his name has probably popped up in some articles because he's preparing to go to Iraq and bash our country.
NPR mentioned these folks this morning. All they said was that a group of military parents was "going over to Iraq to see conditions for themselves." Just by virtue of the fact that they didn't describe the parents in any other way, I instinctively knew that it was an anti-war group publicity stunt. Sure enough...
Bingo, this is an organized front manufactured in a fashion similar to the telemarketers who called the old folks in Florida and scared them into calling Robert Wexler to engineer a fraud, in 2000.
Anyone doubting the true underpinnings of this movement I urge you to pull out the barfbag and watch this spectacle arranged by John Conyers and Maxine Waters, with the ("Military Families to end U.S. Military involvement in Iraq").
Ban him.
You people are a joke any more.
You really cut me deep with that one.
It's like watching a Sitcom... only the actors don't know why people are laughing.
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