It is easy to dismiss the politicians as cold and unfeeling.   Out of touch.  It is not always the case, however. 

One thing I have always admired about Bush was his humanity.  He has never been afraid to let his emotions show.  Remember Ashley Faulkner?  There is a reason the photo and story went viral.  It was because people see his sincerity.

Yes I know the DU and KOS will label both of these stories "the crocodile tears of the killer" of some nutrooty label, but I disagree. 

I think he has the weight of 3000 deaths or more on his shoulders and he feels it.

And as he gave the Medal of Honor to the family of a Marine killed in Iraq, I think his emotions are honest and real.

Maybe I am misguided, but that’s how I feel.

Like my friend Sister Toldjah, I want to honor the life and sacrifice of a hero, a Marine who literally threw himself on a grenade.

Tears Are Shed at the White House for a Marine’s Bravery in Iraq

In April 2004, Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, an ordinary recruit from a small town in upstate New York, did something extraordinary: he threw himself on a grenade to shield two men in his unit as they battled insurgents on a road in Iraq.

On Thursday, President Bush gave Corporal Dunham, who was 22 when he died, the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, presenting it to his mother and father in a somber East Room ceremony attended by his relatives and friends.

In an interview on Tuesday, as she was preparing to make the six-hour trip to Washington for the ceremony, Corporal Dunham’s mother, Debra, said she wished her son could “receive it himself.” “But we will receive it for him, and he will be watching us do that,” she said.

After all, they cannot possibly support something Bush is asking for, it defeats their anti Bush agenda.

But it’s true, there is considerable record of a support in increasing troop strength.  It’s just they keep doing sea changes.

Following the Kerry style flip flopping and supporting an increase before she opposed one is none other then Nancy Pelosi herself.

May 30, 2004, on Meet The Press:

MR. RUSSERT:  What would you do in Iraq today right now?

REP. PELOSI:  What I would do and what I think our country must do in Iraq is take an assessment of where we are.  And there has to be a leveling with the American people and with the Congress of the United States as to what is really actually happening there.  It’s very hard to say what you would do. We need more troops on the ground.  General…

MR. RUSSERT:  American troops if necessary?

REP. PELOSI:  …Shinseki said this from the start, when you make an appraisal about whether you’re going to war, you have to know what you need.

MR. RUSSERT:  So you would put more American troops on the ground?

REP. PELOSI:  What I’m saying to you, that we need more troops on the ground. I think it would be better if we could get them to be not American, that we could appeal to our European allies, NATO. I agree with Senator Kerry in that respect to come…

MR. RUSSERT:  Well, let’s assume all that is wrong.  In order to stabilize the situation, NATO has said they have no troops for Iraq, the French, the Germans and Russians saying no.

REP. PELOSI:  We have to send…

MR. RUSSERT:  Would you send more American troops in order to stabilize the situation?

REP. PELOSI:  Yes. 

But that was then.  Now, more recently….

The speaker, in an interview today with The Chronicle, said the president should understand that sticking with policies other than quickly starting sizable cuts in U.S. troop strength in Iraq is also a non-starter because of declining public support for the war that has claimed more than 3,000 American lives.