Bush meets with families of war dead

WASHINGTON -- Under growing pressure to acknowledge the extent of casualties in Iraq, President Bush held private meetings with families of fallen soldiers yesterday, followed by a pre-holiday pep talk to troops at the Fort Carson Army base whom he thanked for "standing between our country and grave danger."

But as in the past, Bush's comments were largely overshadowed by the gruesome reality on the ground -- this time, a horrific attack on two US soldiers who were shot, then their bodies dragged from their vehicle and beaten in the northern city of Mosul over the weekend. About the attack, which had flooded the news coverage for more than a day, Bush said nothing.

"We face enemies that measure their progress by the chaos they inflict," he simply said.

But now Bush himself is coming under increasing pressure to acknowledge the losses in Iraq by attending military funerals or, at least, allowing cameras to record the homecomings of flag-draped coffins rolling off the cargo planes at Dover Air Force Base. Senator John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, told the Globe he is interested in pushing the administration to allow photographers to witness the arrival of caskets at Dover.

"It just doesn't seem right to me," McCain said. "The American people shouldn't be barred from seeing the coffins come off an airplane when they land in the United States." He stopped short of urging Bush to attend funerals or memorial services, but acknowledged he was "ducking" the question on purpose.

Democrats were harsher in their criticism. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle said yesterday that it is "profoundly disappointing that the president doesn't show more empathy" for the soldiers killed and their families, noting that past presidents have found time for the occasional memorial service.

And retired General Wesley K. Clark, one of the Democratic candidates for president who has criticized the administration's handling of Iraq, issued a statement saying the president's visit to Fort Carson yesterday was "too little, too late" to show proper respect for the families of the dead.

"Our president has refused to attend a single funeral for a single soldier killed in Iraq," said Clark, who served at Fort Carson in 1980. "Even worse, he's banned media coverage and proper public ceremonies for deceased soldiers returning from the war -- the kind of coverup tactics we saw during Vietnam."

That sentiment was heard even at the Army Base near Colorado Springs, which has sent about 12,000 troops to Iraq and has seen 31 deaths, one of the largest tolls of any base.

Lori Hartman, whose husband is scheduled to be deployed in February, said that "what makes me mad the most is past presidents have gone to funerals and he hasn't gone to any."

"It's like he wants to turn his back and not realize what's really going on," Hartman said.

At Fort Carson yesterday, Bush spent 100 minutes with 98 family members of 26 Fort Carson soldiers who were killed.

The administration so far has refused to bend, seeking to deflect attention from the death toll and arguing with every step that families' anguish would be worsened by presidential-level publicity. And administration officials have often cited Bush's past efforts to pay respects: In September, he met privately with a group of families at Fort Stewart in Georgia whose relatives had been killed in Iraq. He also sends personal notes to families of soldiers who die in Iraq, administration officials said.

"The president grieves the loss of every American soldier," said a White House spokesman. "He sends a note to the families, but beyond that he cannot issue a statement at the time every soldier dies, nor can he go to every memorial service that he'd like to go to.

"It's impossible for him . . . Where would you draw the line? Every soldier's death is tragic no matter how he or she died . . . so to issue a special statement when several soldiers are lost together minimizes the loss of soldiers who died individually."

Similarly, administration officials said, it is difficult to pick which funeral to attend without implying one is more significant than the rest.

Yet past presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, attended funerals and memorial services for fallen troops, according to old news accounts and advisers to prior administrations.

"President Clinton's instinct was to acknowledge and mourn deaths and comfort families," said Susan Rice, a foreign policy official at the State Department and the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. "It was a different mood and a different mentality."

Among the services Clinton attended was a memorial for sailors killed during the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, Rice said.

From a political standpoint, Bush risks appearing callous because his public schedule has recently been packed with political events, from fund-raisers to speeches before partisan crowds, members of both parties said. At those events, he has rarely acknowledged major incidents of violence against the troops, staying out of the public eye when a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down two weeks ago, for example.

"If he spent a tenth of the time he spends at fund-raisers at funerals or with families, that would make a difference," Rice said. "You can't pretend it's not happening. The American people know it's happening. They're not stupid. Every morning, when you turn on the TV or read the newspaper, you see it."

Yesterday, Bush seemed intent on humanizing the casualties in a way he normally does not. He singled out Staff Sergeant Daniel Bader as one of the many who "leaves a family that lives in sorrow."

"This good man left behind his wife, Tiffany, and their 14-month-old daughter," Bush said. "Tiffany Bader said this to a reporter recently, `I'm going to wait until she is old enough to realize what happened, and I will tell her exactly what her daddy did for her. He died serving his country so that my little girl could grow up free.' "