Bush warns militants who attack U.S. troops in Iraq

"Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice," Bush said. "There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."

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General Tommy Franks KBE

Tommy Franks repeats Bush's "Bring 'em on'' taunt - AS HE LEAVES IRAQ FOR GOOD

"The fact is, wherever we find criminals, death squads and so forth who are anxious to do damage to this country and to peace-loving countries around the world, I absolutely agree with the president of the United States: 'bring 'em on."

Bush Smirked After 'Admitting Mistakes'

Richard Wolffe from Newsweek, joined Keith Olbermann and said that Bush's more realistic tone and mannerisms seemed rehearsed [in a press conference on May 26, 2006].

Bush was photographed smirking to the front row of the press corps after his 'humble admission' that tough talk like "bring 'em on" had been a mistake.

It took two years for US deaths to reach 324 in Vietnam. It passed that figure in seven months in Iraq Washington Conceals US Casualties in Iraq Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor Wounded in Iraq, Deserted at Home

Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets. To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases. [Washington Post]

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths," Barbara Bush said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on March 18, 2003. "Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" [Common Dreams]

Here's a reason, Mrs Bush:

A 45-year-old woman collapsed and died days after learning her son had been killed in Iraq, and just hours after seeing his body.

Results of an autopsy were not immediately released, but friends of Karen Unruh-Wahrer said she couldn't stop crying over losing her 25-year-old son, Army Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, who was killed by enemy fire near Baghdad on September 25.

"Her grief was so intense -- it seemed it could have harmed her, could have caused a heart attack. Her husband described it as a broken heart," said Cheryl Hamilton, manager of respiratory care services at University Medical Center, where Unruh-Wahrer worked as a respiratory therapist. [CNN]

I'm truly amazed the media deemed it proper and appropriate, since televising dead service-members arriving home at Dover Air Force Base in the dead of night, in neat flag-draped coffins is still not allowed. Obviously, the same standards do not apply.