Hoo boy. Well, if it's gonna be an argument over dead kids in war, might as well use the SAME writer's story about GWB and his war, you know, the one still happening?
The Bodies Come Home
By Sydney H. Schanberg
Village Voice
Wednesday 10 - Tuesday 16 December 2003
The president is grieved by U.S. casualties. He also worries they'll cost him votes.
President Bush does a good deal of traveling these days. He goes to London, where he is greeted by Britons protesting the Iraq war and occupation. He flies to East Asia, where there are more protesters. He wonders aloud about the angry crowds and asks his staff if they really hate "us" that much. At home he flies around the country on Air Force One, speaking to friendly diners at fundraisers for his planned $200 million re-election campaign—about spreading democracy through the world, about his Medicare bill and energy bill and about the progress being made in Iraq. One thing he doesn't talk about very much is the casualties in Iraq. His aides say focusing on the American dead and wounded could create a negative state of national mourning; they say it could turn voters against him and the Iraq mission.
Regardless, the stories of the fallen are finding their way into American homes.
On June 15, army private Robert Frantz of San Antonio mailed a letter home to his mother. He apologized to her for not writing more often, explaining the time constraints of 12-hour guard shifts plus daily patrol duty. And then he
wrote: "Someone shot at us last night. I was getting ready to go to sleep and I hear a pop, pop, and then the bullets ricocheted off the building right outside the window I was standing in front of. . . . It kinda sucks, when all you can think about is there's someone out there trying to kill you or your buddy next to you, and all you can do is hope you kill them first." Robert, 19, was killed two days later when he was struck by a grenade.
The president is right to worry that his re-election could be impeded by a steady drumbeat of casualty stories. He and his aides have tried to muffle them, accusing the media of looking only for the bad news in Iraq. The press corps, not wishing to be seen as disloyal to Americans, has of late been seeking and finding more good-news stories. Still, there's really no way for professional journalists to leave out the bad things that keep happening. After all, these men and women in uniform are giving their lives. They are fine young Americans, behaving most of the time with honor, discipline, and the wish to do good.
There's more at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/121403E.shtml