Only the leftward fringes could concoct and image of George Bush as some uncaring, greedy monster who doesn’t really feel the pain and loss of those who have sacrificed loved ones in this ongoing War on Terror. The NYPost has a short story out today to counter all the liberal MSM myths with a dose of compassionate reality:

President Bush has offered a caring shoulder to cry on and an ear open to complaints, say families of fallen soldiers who’ve met with him privately.
“It felt like he could have been my dad,” Crystal Owen, whose husband died in Iraq, told Newsweek magazine.

When Owen, who met with Bush at Fort Bragg, fought back tears and demanded that her husband’s death not be in vain, Bush grabbed her hands and said repeatedly, “Don’t worry, don’t worry,” while choking back tears of his own.

Her recollection differs sharply from the complaints of Cindy Sheehan, whose GI son, Casey, was killed in Iraq. Sheehan claims Bush brushed off her concerns at their private meeting.

Bush has met with about 900 family members of some 270 fallen soldiers.

In one particularly emotional meeting, Rachel Ascione was weeping over the loss of her Marine brother, Ron Payne. Bush pulled her close and put his hand on the top of her head. “It was just like my brother used to do,” she said.

I sometimes want to see any liberal make a hard decision and then face those who were impacted most by their decision and try and comfort them. How many soldiers and families felt Somalia was a complete waste of life and limb? And where was the MSM then? Did they show the outrage of families who lost loved ones only to have the administration cut and run?

Do we need to be reminded again and again that this war was going to be long and hard and would likely continue on past even Bush’s second term?

If you need a reminder of who our President is inside, the part he will never boast about because that would be unseemly, just recall this picture.

UPDATE:

More here at Newsweek [hat tip Michelle Malkin]

Bush routinely asks to see the families of the fallen when he visits military bases, which he does about 10 times a year. It does not appear that the White House or the military makes any effort to screen out dissenters or embittered families, though some families decline the invitation to meet with Bush. Most families encourage the president to stay the course in Iraq. “To oppose something my husband lost his life for would be a betrayal,” says Inge Colton, whose husband, Shane, died in April 2004 when his Apache helicopter was shot down over Baghdad. Bush does, however, hear plenty of complaints. He has been asked about missing medals on the returned uniform of a loved one, about financial assistance for a child going to college and about how soldiers really died when the Pentagon claimed the details were classified.
…
Before Bush left the meeting, he paused in the middle of the room and said to the families, “I will never feel the same level of pain and loss you do. I didn’t lose anyone close to me, a member of my family or someone that I love. But I want you to know that I didn’t go into this lightly. This was a decision that I struggle with every day.”

Go read the personal accounts, it is inspiring. As Michelle aptly pointed out, the wheels are falling off the Sheehan bandwagon. There are probably more of these kinds of stories than Sheehan’s politically motivated grandstanding.

More at The Anchoress and by Lori Byrd (welcome back) at Polipundit.

Chrenkoff has a great post on the Un-Sheehans – nice.