Tuesday, September 26, 2006
'Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead'
The War President and his 'Mission Accomplished' (May 1, 2003)
The president grieves in private. Maybe he does but I find it hard to believe just as I doubt the claim that this summer he read The Stranger by Albert Camus. The casualties mount and reports about the deception foisted upon the American public to sell the war in Iraq continue to surface. Latest numbers (U.S. Soldiers): September 1-25: 63 Total todate: 2705 When the president appeared on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, against the backdrop of a large banner reading 'Mission Accomplished' the U.S. casualties were 42. Then there was his "Bring them on" challenge to the insurgents on July 2, 2003. Since then 2498 soldiers have died in Iraq. Peter Baker in the Post: "FALMOUTH, Maine -- They sat on two frayed chairs in a teacher's lounge, the president and the widow, just the two of them so close that their knees were almost touching.She was talking about her husband, the soldier who died in a far-off war zone. Tears rolled down her face as she mentioned two children left fatherless. His eyes welled up, too. He hugged her, held her face, kissed her cheek. "I am so sorry for your loss," he kept repeating."
She told him she considers him responsible for her husband's death and begged him to bring home the troops. "It's time to put our pride behind us and stop the bleeding, for all of us," she recalled saying. The president demurred, unwilling to debate a mourning woman. "We see things differently," he said. But Hildi Halley, a self-described liberal antiwar activist who met with President Bush in Maine last month, said she believes he felt her grief. "It wasn't just a crocodile tear," she said in an interview at her home. "I felt like I moved him. I don't think he's going to wake up tomorrow and say, 'Oh my gosh, I've been wrong this whole time and I'm going to change all my policies because of my meeting with this woman.' I just hope that with each soldier, he remembers my pain." He has a lot of pain to remember. Now more than five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush has served as a wartime president longer than any occupant of the White House since Lyndon B. Johnson. He has presided over more U.S. military casualties than any since Richard M. Nixon. While he travels the country defending his policy and arguing to stay the course in Iraq, he also confronts the human burdens of wartime leadership. The two sides of Bush as commander in chief can be hard to reconcile. His public persona gives little sense that he dwells on the costs of war. He does not seem to agonize as Johnson did, or even as his father, George H.W. Bush, did before the Persian Gulf War. While he pays tribute to those who have fallen, the president strives to show resolve and avoid displays that might be seen as weak or doubting. His refusal to attend military funerals, while taking long Texas vacations and extended bicycle rides, strikes some critics as callous indifference. |
Home they brought her warrior dead, is the title of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Angel D. Mercado-Velazquez, 24, Army Staff Sergeant, Sep 01, 2006
Cliff Golla, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 01, 2006
Eugene Alex, 32, Army Staff Sergeant, Sep 02, 2006
Edwin Anthony Andino Jr., 23, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006
Justin W. Dreese, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006
Richard J. Henkes II, 32, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006
Nicholas A. Madaras, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 03, 2006
Jason L. Merrill, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 03, 2006
Ralph N. Porras, 36, Army Sergeant, Sep 03, 2006
Shane P. Harris, 23, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 03, 2006
Philip A. Johnson, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 03, 2006
Ryan E. Miller, 21, Marine Private, Sep 03, 2006
Hannah L. Gunterman, 20, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 04, 2006
Marshall A. Gutierrez, 41, Army Lieutenant Colonel, Sep 04, 2006
Germaine L. Debro, 33, Army National Guard Sergeant, Sep 04, 2006
Jared M. Shoemaker, 29, Marine Reserve Corporal, Sep 04, 2006
Eric P. Valdepenas, 21, Marine Reserve Lance Corporal, Sep 04, 2006
Christopher Walsh, 30, Naval Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class, Sep 04, 2006
John A. Carroll, 26, Army Sergeant, Sep 06, 2006
Jeremy R. Shank, 18, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 06, 2006
Luis A. Montes, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 07, 2006
David J. Ramsey, 27, Army Specialist, Sep 07, 2006
Vincent M. Frassetto, 21, Marine Private 1st Class, Sep 07, 2006
David W. Gordon, 23, Army Sergeant, Sep 08, 2006
Anthony P. Seig, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 09, 2006
Johnathan Benson, 21, Marine Corporal, Sep 09, 2006
Alexander Jordan, 31, Army Specialist, Sep 10, 2006
Harley D. Andrews, 22, Army Specialist, Sep 11, 2006
Emily J.T. Perez, 23, Army 2nd Lieutenant, Sep 12, 2006
Matthew C. Mattingly, 30, Army Captain, Sep 13, 2006
Jeffrey Shaffer, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Sep 13, 2006
Marcus A. Cain, 20, Army Corporal, Sep 14, 2006
Jennifer M. Hartman, 21, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006
Russell M. Makowski, 23, Army Specialist, Sep 14, 2006
Aaron A. Smith, 31, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006
David Thomas Weir, 23, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006
Clint E. Williams, 24, Army Sergeant, Sep 14, 2006
Ryan A. Miller, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 14, 2006
Cesar A. Granados, 21, Army Corporal, Sep 15, 2006
David S. Roddy, 32, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class, Sep 16, 2006
David J. Davis, 32, Army Sergeant, Sep 17, 2006
Adam L. Knox, 21, Army Sergeant, Sep 17, 2006
James R. Worster, 24, Army Sergeant, Sep 18, 2006
Robert Thomas Callahan, 22, Army Specialist, Sep 19, 2006
Ashley L. Henderson Huff, 23, Army 1st Lieutenant, Sep 19, 2006
Jared Raymond, 20, Army Specialist, Sep 19, 2006
Eric Kavanagh, 20, Army Private, Sep 20, 2006
Robb Gordon Needham, 51, Army Master Sergeant, Sep 20, 2006
Charles Jason Jones, 29, Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class, Sep 20, 2006
Yull Estrada Rodriguez, 21, Marine Corporal, Sep 20, 2006
Christopher M. Zimmerman, 28, Marine Sergeant, Sep 20, 2006
Allan R. Bevington, 22, Army Sergeant, Sep 21, 2006
Howard S. March Jr., 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 24, 2006
Rene Martinez, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Sep 24, 2006
Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties
