Angry in the Great White North

The pro-Sheehan group Bring Them Home Now (theirs is the first link listed from the Cindy Sheehan's Gold Star Families for Peace links page) has this picture to share, with a bit of a story:

Cindy Sheehan, right, and Bush supporter Gary Qualls of Temple, Texas hug at her camp near Crawford, Texas. Qualls' son, Marine Lance Corporal Louis W. Qualls, was killed in Fallujah on Nov. 14, 2004. Qualls answered an invitation from Sheehan to meet with pro-Bush parents that lost children in Iraq. Qualls was the only parent that came.

Looks like a moment of reaching out across the political divide, right?

Finding common ground in sorrow, right?

Looks like Gary Qualls would rather be hugging a rattlesnake, eh?

OK, that last comment is purely subjective, but this is not. From the Media Blog at the National Review, we get this story:

On CNN's Your World Today, Gary Qualls, the father of Louis W. Qualls, held up the white cross bearing his son's name, which he pulled out of the ground where Cindy Sheehan and her followers had placed it without his permission.

He told YWT anchor Jim Clancy, “Not once did they ever ask me if they could use my son’s name.” He spoke of his son's sacrifice, of how his son believed in what he was doing, and how Cindy Sheehan doesn't speak for him.

How many other names on Cindy Sheehan's crosses are the names of soldiers who would find her politics despicable?

Funny how Bring Them Home Now neglected to share that bit of the meeting. Just the hug.

And the beatific look on Cindy Sheehan's face.

And the look of something else entirely on Gary Qualls'.

[Put Gary Qualls name along side Ronald Griffin for parents who don't appreciate Cindy Sheehan's antics.

Captain Ed also considers the question of exactly who Cindy Sheehan is speaking for.

Blogs for Bush calls for support for Gary Qualls.]