Via the
Lexington Herald-Leader,
Catch.com, and
Atrios:
Apologies if this has been posted here.
The pros and cons of U.S. involvement in Iraq were not discussed among family members who gathered last week to grieve and to prepare for the funeral, said John Whitlow, a cousin. Some family members opposed and some supported the war before Comley's death, and Whitlow said he didn't know whether that had changed.
"As you can imagine, we're not talking about what divides us right now," he said.
(..)
But on Friday, Comley's grandmother, 80-year-old Geraldine Comley of Versailles, described herself in an interview as a former Republican stalwart who is "on a rampage" against the president and the war.
More under the fold, including her wish to join Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey.
She said she would like nothing better than to join Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier who has been holding a peace vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Texas.
"When someone gets up and says 'My son died for our freedom,' or I get a sympathy card that says that, I can hardly bear it," Geraldine Comley said.
She said her view, developed before her grandson's death, is that Bush pushed for war because Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had tried to assassinate the first President Bush, and to get control of Mideast oil.
"And it irritates me no small amount that Dick Cheney, in the Vietnam War, said he had 'other priorities,'" Geraldine Comley said. "He didn't mind sending my grandson over there" to Iraq.
I'm sure that for each documented inspiration, there's a few more inspired people who aren't in papers.
Sadly, I wouldn't be stunned if the right-wing tried smearing an 80 year old Grandmother too. Then again, I wouldn't be stunned by much.