Grieving Military Families Need to See the President

[thedrifter]

11-20-2003

From the Editor:

Grieving Military Families Need to See the President

By Ed Offley



President Bush has a serious new problem at hand, but it appears that his ever-vigilant political image-polishing staff is, for once, clueless about it.



Prior to his state visit in Great Britain this week, the president granted an interview to The Sun newspapers in which among other topics he spoke of a planned meeting with relatives of British troops killed in Iraq.



Bush said in a Sun article headlined, ?Bush: Your Sons Did Not Die in Vain,? published on Nov. 19: ?Nobody likes war. See, I understand the consequences of war. I understand particularly when I go and hug the moms and dads and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters of those who died. I can see also the consequences of not acting, of hoping for the best in the face of tyrannical killers.? The president went on to say, ?I understand how bad they hurt. I will do the best I can to provide some comfort. I have done this in America as well. It?s part of my duty as the leader of this country to comfort those who have sacrificed.?



In one sense, Bush was not inaccurate when he told the British journalists that he has grieved with family members and visited the injured. A White House spokesman this week noted that the president has previously met with family members of the slain and has traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center on three occasions to meet with wounded soldiers.



And, truth be told, Bush paused before a rope-line of reporters on Sunday to express his sorrow over the loss of 17 soldiers in the collision of two Blackhawk helicopters in Iraq. But the president has apparently decided not to attend memorial services for any individual soldiers. Since the majority of fatalities are being handled on an individual basis, that means he is no longer attending to any of them.



Neither the Pentagon Early Bird news summaries nor the White House website list any presidential commemoration or participation in a memorial service since major combat operations ended on May 1.



So even if Bush, a la Bill Clinton, spoke a narrow truth, the perception that he is dodging a most unpleasant presidential task is real and growing. Many military families who have lost loved ones in Iraq increasingly believe that the president has deliberately separated himself from the hard task of mourning since the short-lived euphoria (?Mission Accomplished?) in early May gave way to a protracted guerrilla war in Iraq that has now killed more Americans than occurred in the three-week ground offensive last spring.



Just ask Elaine Johnson. She traveled from South Carolina to Fort Carson, Colo., on Tuesday for a memorial service to her son, Spec. Darius Tomel Jennings, who was killed in Iraq this month.



?I feel my son died for his country,? Elaine Johnson told a Denver Post reporter ?A representative from his country should have been here to honor him.? By ?representative,? she meant the commander-in-chief.



One DefenseWatch reader who saw the president?s interview transcript with the London newspaper sent us an email that smoked like a ?Howler? from the Harry Potter books.



?Statements like these by Bush & Co. are not only lies,? Joseph Grant fumed. ?They are insults to everyone in the military ? particularly to those who have lost a family member.?

Exacerbating the perception ? fair or not ? that the administration wants to deflect attention from the steady trickle of casualties, is a new restriction on the media imposed several weeks ago banning the press from covering the arrival of flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base, Del., and restricting coverage of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.



Denver columnist Jim Spencer hit the nail on the head when he acknowledged that it would be physically impossible for Bush to attend every memorial service for every soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Spencer noted, ?Most Americans understand that George Bush can't make it to every memorial service. Most Americans - especially service people and their families - could understand that his attendance at only a few memorial services would be symbolic of his desire to go to them all.?



The president reportedly is scheduled to visit Fort Carson next week after his return to the United States from a trip that includes comforting the grieving relatives of our staunch ally. He can do much to heal a growing breach with the military community in this country by encouraging Fort Carson officials to organize a memorial service to its fallen heroes in which he can participate. And it would be even better if the president ordered Air Force One to divert to Fort Campbell, Ky., on the way home to help that traumatized Army community as it copes with ? in the president?s own words from three days after 9/11, the ?middle hour of our grief.?



Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.

?Bush: Your Sons Did Not Die in Vain,?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003531173,00.html

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/...7.0929859292006

Sempers,

Roger