TRYING TO HIDE THE PAIN OF WAR

TRYING TO HIDE THE PAIN OF WAR

11/17/2003

Where's George?

Remember him?

Mr. "Smoke 'em out."

Mr. "Bring 'em on."

Mr. Top Gun, who pulled that stunt landing on the aircraft carrier,
strutting for the cameras under a White House banner declaring:

"Mission Accomplished."

But now that nearly twice as many soldiers have died in Iraq after
they raised that banner than before it -- and with coffins of our
dead
troops still coming home almost daily -- where's the president who
was
so visible when sending troops off to war?

The hard job is not sending them off... but seeing the boxes come
home.

Where's George in this hour of national need?

Bush has not attended the funeral of any American soldier killed in
action in his war.

We recently saw a photo-op of him hugging a woman who'd lost her
house
in the California wildfires -- but he's simply been AWOL when it
comes
to appearing at the funerals of those shipped home from Iraq.

His political henchmen say they don't want George to get mired down
in
the daily body counts.

Even when 15 Americans died in a Chinook helicopter that was
recently
shot down in Iraq -- not a peep from George.

He stayed way out of sight at his ranchette in Crawford, Texas.

The White House political Machiavellions think that if there's no
presidential focus on the deadly price of the Iraqi occupation, the
public won't notice that things are going very badly over there.

Indeed, the Pentagon has even barred the media from covering the
arrival of the coffins at the air base in Dover, Deleware.

And the Pentagon also has stopped reporting the number of soliders
wounded in Iraq -- as though if they don't report it, it's not
happening.

The White House warmongers have isolated themselves from the harsh
pain of their ambitions for empire.

But, if the sons and daughters of Bush, Cheney, and the other
warmongers were the ones coming home in boxes, then you'd see a
sharp
change in presidential attitude... and in policy.
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