Invasion of Privacy or Evasion of Scrutiny

No cameras cover the return to the United States of American military personnel killed overseas.

In the past, the arrival ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware -- the largest military mortuary in the United States -- has been public. But the Bush administration now forbids news media coverage of the return of the fallen, claiming that the policy is in place to prevent an "invasion of privacy."

Does Mr. Bush really believe that it was an "invasion of privacy" when President Reagan publicly received the bodies of the marines killed in Lebanon? Does Mr. Bush actually think that it was an "invasion of privacy" when his father spoke at a memorial for the sailors killed aboard the USS Iowa?

Or is this Bush policy designed to mute the impact and significance of American military deaths in Iraq?