Death is an everyday fact of life for American soldiers in Iraq. Be it a comrade, enemy guerrillas or civilians caught in the crossfire, the daily casualties are a reminder of the grim realities of war.

Here at home, those realities are sanitized into faceless, bloodless statistics. Each dead soldier’s homecoming is shrouded from public view. Each death is mourned broadly by our president, while he avoids the harshness of attending even a single funeral for the war dead.

A rule implemented by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 prohibits news coverage of war casualties arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The policy was put into place after network news used a split screen to show military caskets arriving at Dover alongside images of the first President Bush speaking in 1989. An outraged White House made sure the same thing wouldn’t happen during the first Gulf War.

The restrictions were relaxed during the Clinton administration, but returned by order of the Pentagon before troops invaded Iraq this year.

During a 2000 speech at Harvard University, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton coined the “Dover Test.”

“Is the American public prepared for the sight of our most precious resource coming home in flag-draped caskets into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware?” Shelton’s warning: Don’t fight a war unless the answer is yes.

President Bush writes a personal letter to the families of fallen service men and women. He has met with several families privately. But by avoiding the funerals and by banning the press from Dover, he hides the human costs of the war from most of the nation. Almost 450 coalition soldiers have died so far in Iraq, more than 100 in November alone.

By its actions, this administration tells the country that the fight in Iraq fails the Dover Test.

Whether you agree with this war in Iraq or not, the responsibility for it rests squarely on the shoulders of President Bush. It was his decision to place the members of our military into harm’s way. In fact, it was his duty if he believed the country was threatened.

But his duty to those who are fighting does not stop with the order to attack or a premature declaration of victory aboard an aircraft carrier. It stops when our men and women come home, whether at war’s end or in flag-covered coffins.

We saw a flash of understanding with the president’s courageous Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad. But that’s not enough.

The military understands the importance of a soldier’s funeral and takes special care to honor its dead. There is a sense of ceremony, of dignity and of respect. The commander and chief should know that too.

Bush should lift the veil at Dover, and he should lead the nation in the public grief that marches, side by side, with war.


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