Some War Widows Oppose Sheehan

They Tell Of Meetings With Bush, Express Anger At Sheehan

(CBS)  While Cindy Sheehan continues her anti-war protests outside of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, there are many others personally affected by the fighting in Iraq who support the president and the war.

CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan spoke with widows at Fort Hood, Texas, who have seen a side of President Bush rarely seen in public.

It's true that Mr. Bush doesn't attend the funerals of those he sends to war, Cowan observes. It's also true the administration would prefer if cameras were not around when the fallen come home in caskets.

But for hundreds of soldier's families, the president isn't necessarily a man who turns a deaf ear to the war's grief and frustration.

When Staff Sgt. Robert Thornton died in Baghdad's Al Rashid district, Mr. Bush met with his young widow, one on one, during a visit to Fort Hood.

"He's very sincere, he's very caring and very compassionate," Ellen Thornton says. "You can tell that he struggles every day with the loss of life."

Mr. Bush's meetings with families of troops killed in war are private moments, Cowan says. The press is never allowed, and the meetings are brief.

Inge Colton took her son, Lance, hoping the president would apologize to him for the loss of his father, Shane Colton.

He did.

"I'm not going to say it helped about how I felt about losing my husband," Inge Colton says. "It didn't. But it helped me know that he cared."