Some War Widows Oppose Sheehan

They Tell Of Meetings With Bush, Express Anger At Sheehan

(CBS)  Linnie Blankenbecler took her daughter into the makeshift grieving room that same day, and was surprised at the reaction she got: "He's very touchy. He hugs. He hugged me. He hugged my daughter, and he cried. He cried for my husband, too."

The president's one-on-one meetings at Fort Hood lasted for more than three hours that day. He met with more than 30 families.

And whatever it might have meant, certainly something different for each family, Cowan says, there's one thing that almost all of them agree on: that the resolute politician in public is very different in private.

Says Ellen Holton: "I just looked at him, and I'd already been crying. And he just came over and he gave me a big hug and he kissed me on both cheeks, and he was crying at the same time. He's like, 'I'm so sorry. I just I cannot believe this.' "

Added Inge Colton, "He told me he was sorry for my loss, and we talked about Shane, and he made a comment what a good-looking guy he was."

"I do not at all feel that he is at fault for the death of my husband," says Blankenbecler.

And, Cowan says, it is a common emotion that has all three shaking their heads at how Cindy Sheehan is dealing with grief over the loss of her son, by protesting the war in front of the president's ranch.

Speaking of a cross in a field of hundreds honoring Iraq war dead, Blankenbecler told Cowan, "When she put that cross up, with my husband's name on it, that's when she crossed the line."

Their husbands, they say, would never have protested the war, even if, in those most private of private moments, Mr. Bush may seem to have his doubts.

"He's conflicted because, ya know, he's doing the right thing but then, also, he's got all these loss of lives, which you're going to have if you go to war," Thornton says. "But, being the kind of person he is, that weighs on his mind."

Pride and pain, Cowan says, weighs on everyone's mind, no matter how they choose to express it.