Reply #2: Did you see this in the Washington Post today. This woman's story [View All]

[Pirate Smile]

makes me very glad Kerry's Amendment passed as it was and the Republicans weren't able to limit the benefit to just combat zones.

If you read the entire piece at the link, the woman's story above this one supports Bush but was pissed and Bush, as usual, was clueless.

"A Widow Against the War

I have to wonder what Bush would say -- or has said -- faced with a widow who didn't support the war.

It might have happened on Tuesday if widow Shelann Clapp had been invited to meet with him. But she wasn't.

Clapp's exclusion apparently had everything to do with the fact that her husband died in a stateside accident -- and nothing to do with her opposition to the war, which until speaking with me yesterday she hadn't talked about in public.

But she's angry.

"I'm not a good military wife anymore, I'm an angry military wife. I'm an angry military widow," she said.

Her husband of 28 years, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Douglas V. Clapp, died in November in a helicopter crash not far from Fort Hood. The Black Hawk in which he was a passenger was headed to check out equipment being readied for use in Iraq when it hit support wires from a TV transmission tower. He'd served in the military for more than 30 years and had recently returned from a deployment in Iraq.

What Shelann Clapp is angriest about is that she didn't even hear that Bush was meeting with survivor families until the next day.

"Maybe my husband didn't really count," she said.

"I disagree with a distinction being made between soldiers that died in the war and soldiers that died supporting the war. . . . He's still not home with my family."

Losing her husband as part of a war effort that she thought wasn't necessary in the first place makes it particularly hard, she said.

"I did not support the war. I did not support us going to war," she said. "I think my husband's death was in vain, I really do. I don't think it needed to happen. It did not need to happen. . . .

"I won't say my husband gave his life for this country. I will never say that," she said. "I would say he lost his life for this country."

How many of the other Fort Hood widows think their husbands died in vain -- and did any of them get to meet with Bush on Tuesday? Clapp doesn't know. "We tend not to discuss that," she said. "We just talk about the guys."

If any survivors who have met with the president are reading this, I'd love to tell your story. E-mail me at [e-mail].

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1394549