Posted on 08/18/2005 10:34:05 AM PDT by LouAvul
While Cindy Sheehan continues her anti-war protests outside of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, there are many others personally affected by the fighting in Iraq who support the president and the war.
CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan spoke with widows at Fort Hood, Texas, who have seen a side of President Bush rarely seen in public.
It's true that Mr. Bush doesn't attend the funerals of those he sends to war, Cowan observes. It's also true the administration would prefer if cameras were not around when the fallen come home in caskets.
But for hundreds of soldier's families, the president isn't necessarily a man who turns a deaf ear to the war's grief and frustration.
When Staff Sgt. Robert Thornton died in Baghdad's Al Rashid district, Mr. Bush met with his young widow, one on one, during a visit to Fort Hood.
"He's very sincere, he's very caring and very compassionate," Ellen Thornton says. "You can tell that he struggles every day with the loss of life."
Mr. Bush's meetings with families of troops killed in war are private moments, Cowan says. The press is never allowed, and the meetings are brief.
Inge Colton took her son, Lance, hoping the president would apologize to him for the loss of his father, Shane Colton.
He did.
"I'm not going to say it helped about how I felt about losing my husband," Inge Colton says. "It didn't. But it helped me know that he cared."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I do not at all feel that he is at fault for the death of my husband," says Blankenbecler.
And, Cowan says, it is a common emotion that has all three shaking their heads at how Cindy Sheehan is dealing with grief over the loss of her son, by protesting the war in front of the president's ranch.
Speaking of a cross in a field of hundreds honoring Iraq war dead, Blankenbecler told Cowan, "When she put that cross up, with my husband's name on it, that's when she crossed the line."
Their husbands, they say, would never have protested the war, even if, in those most private of private moments, Mr. Bush may seem to have his doubts.
"He's conflicted because, ya know, he's doing the right thing but then, also, he's got all these loss of lives, which you're going to have if you go to war," Thornton says. "But, being the kind of person he is, that weighs on his mind."
That may be to long ago, perhaps you'd have better luck with Bubba Clinton. You could ask about Somalia for starters.
Somebody please clue me in on what was posted in #15, #16 (back too me) that earned the poster and instant fatal ZOT???
You wrote, "How about this...MOST War Widows Oppose Sheehan? Or, The absolute majority of war widows oppose Sheehan? That would be the truth."
My question to you is on what do you base this subjective comment? Do you have any statistics to prove it? If so, please post the URL for these statistics, if not, please think about posting that it is your opinion making that claim. Otherwise you sound like either a news “journalist” or a politician seeking election.
Only some???
Is that one less than all . . . or one more than one?
What the heck does "some" mean?
Oh...I get it! "Some" is used in the same sense as, ". . . CBS regularly gets some good ratings..."
Right, a big fat zero. cbs is just so full of it.
"It's also true the administration would prefer if cameras were not around when the fallen come home in caskets."
Actually, the federal policy of not allowing photos of caskets was signed into law by Bill Clinton.
I would have written "some" as well.
If you say "most," you dang well be able to prove it.
In the story's lede, it does say "MANY" instead of some.
Monkeys are flying outta my butt!
That's what I was referring to...I must have created something dubious with my little keyboard...
That is pretty good actually.
I believe any objective reasoning regarding the issue will support the thesis. Bush is the President...he won the election with a majority of the voters...an election where this very issue was a big part of the decision.
Bush, as president, has taken us to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The force fighting that war is made up of an all volunteer force. Those fighting have volunteered and are volunteering.
Erego...clearly the vast majority of that force must support the war and Bush else they would not volunteer. Ergo...the majority of their parents and spouses support the effort as well.
Parents and spouses have (in most cases) significant impact and influence on an individual's major life's decisions.
In the case of Casey Sheehan that was not true...as evidenced by his mother's spectacle. But I do not for an instant, based on objective reason, believe that her's is a majority position.
I don't believe her position is the majority either, but you can't just assume it is in a news article.
This article uses BOTH some and many to describe the number who oppose Sheehan.
That is good enough for me, and it is exactly what I would have done. I would never write "most" unless I have some statistics and polls of military families to back me up.
As a two-tour combat veteran, I have to disagree with you. Casey Sheehan's memory as a soldier will always be held high in the hearts and minds of his fellow soldiers and they will remember him for his actions. The “world of his comrades-in-arms” you mentioned is a world that is composed every combat veteran, regardless of which conflict we were in, and that world is based on duty, honor, and service.
The words and actions of those who are not combat veterans and who do not, or cannot understand the meaning of duty, honor, and service can never tarnish that world, nor can they take away from any of us who we are or that which we have accomplished.
That world has been forged in the fires of hell, laid on the anvil of truth, pounded true with the hammer of adversity, and cooled with the blood and the tears of our comrades. No, his warrior spirit will still abide with his comrades, unblemished, undaunted, and undefeated.
But that's just my opinion...you are certainly entitled to your own in such a matter without any rancor from me over it.
Well "dogkojo" is an appropriate name for the mad-dog DUers out there, don't you think? lol! At least this one named themself appropriately.
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