Letter: Bush used 9-11 coffin imagery

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | 8:40 a.m.

President Bush issued an executive order that flag-draped caskets returning home from Iraq could not be shown on television. Now the Republicans are raising a fuss because a planeload of flag-draped coffins was shown on national television.

In a climate of mixed messages, George W. Bush advises that he approved a campaign television ad that showed him adjacent to a flag-covered casket from the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Is this inconsistent, or is it just politics as usual? Bush does not want to emphasize how many of our young people are losing their lives in a war that he started under false pretenses. But when a flag-covered casket of a New York firefighter serves his purposes in his attempt at re-election, he endorses that use as appropriate.

DON MCDONALD

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