Bush and Relatives of Fallen Lean on Each Other

Source: NYT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — Late one night last year, while her husband was an Army scout in Iraq, Melissa Storey sat in the quiet of her bedroom to write President Bush a letter. She wanted him to know “we believed in him.” And after Staff Sgt. Clint Storey, 30, was killed by a roadside bomb, his widow put pen to paper again.

“I felt like I needed to let him know I don’t hate him because my husband is dead,” Mrs. Storey said, “that I don’t blame him for Clint dying over there.”

The correspondence did not go unnoticed. In May, Mrs. Storey received a surprise telephone call from the White House inviting her to a Memorial Day reception there. As she mingled at the elegant gathering, too nervous to eat, her 5-year-old daughter clutching her dress, her infant son cradled in her arms, a military aide appeared. The president wanted to see her in the Oval Office.

(snip)

Like Melissa Storey, Bill Adams, who has been leading war protests in Lancaster, Pa., wrote Mr. Bush a letter — not to praise the president, but to question the military’s account of the death of his son, Brent. When Mr. Bush held a town-hall-style meeting in Lancaster last month, Mr. Adams asked a friend with a ticket to deliver his missive to the president. It worked, and a top aide to Mr. Bush later called Mr. Adams.

But when the president met families of the fallen that day in Lancaster, it did not escape Mr. Adams’s notice that he was not among them.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/us/10families.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

in a 5lb bag!!

......The White House knows that if support for the war erodes among military families, Mr. Bush’s ability to pursue his policies in Iraq will suffer.

In a recent interview with conservative columnists, Mr. Bush said” “I am constantly trying to get a sense of the military, the people that are out there in the fight. And the question is, Are their families in the fight?”

To see to it that they are, Mr. Bush often plays the role of social worker in his family meetings, asking participants about issues like benefits and health care. Mrs. Storey said the president “seemed to get really upset” when she told him she was not getting her survivor’s benefits. Within a week, she said, “the checks began showing up.”

It has been nearly six months since their meeting, and sometimes Mrs. Storey still finds it hard to believe that the simple act of writing a letter brought her into the presence of the president of the United States. She still has the photographs from the session, the letters she and Mr. Bush exchanged. Living in the heavily Democratic state of Massachusetts, she said, it is not easy to be a Bush supporter.

“When I tell the people I met the president, a lot of people will give that look,” she said. “I say, I don’t care what your opinion is of him. You have your opinion, I have mine, but I’ve met him and he’s a good guy. I cannot say anything negative about that man. He showed us nothing but kindness.”

......The White House knows that if support for the war erodes among military families, Mr. Bush’s ability to pursue his policies in Iraq will suffer.

In a recent interview with conservative columnists, Mr. Bush said” “I am constantly trying to get a sense of the military, the people that are out there in the fight. And the question is, Are their families in the fight?”

To see to it that they are, Mr. Bush often plays the role of social worker in his family meetings, asking participants about issues like benefits and health care. Mrs. Storey said the president “seemed to get really upset” when she told him she was not getting her survivor’s benefits. Within a week, she said, “the checks began showing up.”

It has been nearly six months since their meeting, and sometimes Mrs. Storey still finds it hard to believe that the simple act of writing a letter brought her into the presence of the president of the United States. She still has the photographs from the session, the letters she and Mr. Bush exchanged. Living in the heavily Democratic state of Massachusetts, she said, it is not easy to be a Bush supporter.

“When I tell the people I met the president, a lot of people will give that look,” she said. “I say, I don’t care what your opinion is of him. You have your opinion, I have mine, but I’ve met him and he’s a good guy. I cannot say anything negative about that man. He showed us nothing but kindness.”

So Mrs. Storey thanked the murderer because he was polite? I cannot say anything positive about this woman.

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: agian:toast:

The grieving mother gives her tacit pass for the WH to continue to "feed more" kids into the killing machine.

Pretty sickening. :puke:

MKJ

To be so in awe of the person who bought about her husband's death. I wonder about her love for her husband when she fawns all over his murderer.

Could be. I wonder how he related to the twins?