Bush Has Yet to Meet Cindy, Blair Has Yet to Meet Rose, But Brown Sets Example for Obama

[While Bush has not met with Cindy Sheehan yet and Tony Blair has not sat down with Rose Gentle who also lost her son in Iraq, the new guy Gordon Brown has met with Gentle, suggesting a possibility for Obama: meet with Cindy Sheehan as Bush never did. -- DS]

Anti-Iraq war campaigner Rose Gentle meets Prime Minister
The Daily Record, Aug 21 2009

A GLASGOW mother who campaigned against the war in Iraq after her soldier son was killed met Prime Minister Gordon Brown today.

Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon of the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in June 2004, had a private meeting with Mr Brown at an undisclosed location in Fife.

She later said the hour-long meeting had been "calm" and gone well.

Mrs Gentle, 45, who helped set up the campaign group Military Families Against The War, has said the decision to invade Iraq was based on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's "lies" about weapons of mass destruction and his desire to avoid falling out with US president George Bush.

She previously had a string of meeting requests with Mr Blair turned down.

After today's hour-long meeting, she said: "My anger is still with Tony Blair. Tony Blair refused to have a meeting with me when he was Prime Minister.

"My feelings about going into Iraq and how my son was killed have not changed.

"I know he (Mr Brown) was partly responsible for them going there as he held the purse strings.

"But, I thought there was no point in raising voices during the meeting as I wouldn't be able to get answers to the questions."

Mrs Gentle said she asked the Prime Minister about improving information for families who have lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan and about equipment for frontline troops.

She said she had more questions which she wanted to ask at the inquiry into the Iraq war.

Speaking about the meeting, Mrs Gentle said: "We did tell him we need a lot more equipment sent out to our boys.

"He said they were putting a lot of money towards equipment and when helicopters broke down they've got to come back to Britain to be fixed.

"We asked if he would fund a group where brothers and sisters of those killed in the armed forces could meet. He said it was a good idea that the brothers and sisters are meeting and he will get back to us regarding any funding.

"We also asked if train tickets could be given to families who want to travel to see the memorial wall from Basra which will be placed at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire.

"We think he should send tickets out to families because a lot can't afford it and are single parents. He said he would look into that."