DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. – Standing in the pre-dawn darkness, President Barack Obama saw the real cost of the war in Afghanistan: The Americans who return in flag-covered cases while much of the nation sleeps in peace.

In a surprise midnight dash to this Delaware base where U.S. forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday. All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for U.S. troops since the war began.

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The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years…It was not quite 4 a.m. The sky was black and a yellowish light came from poles flanking the flight. The only sounds were a whirring power unit on the plane and the clicking of cameras.

Ah yes, the clicking cameras. For a "surprise dash", the visit was extremely well-covered by the press. The images were indeed dramatic–the president standing in the darkness on the tarmac, isolated, alone, with the unbearable weight of mortal decisions echoing in the silence. The flag-draped body-cases passing in review.

I suspect that Obama has already made his decision to escalate and intensify the AfPak occupation, in part because it is doubtful that any significant voice exists within his hearing that actually recommends de-escalation. So, rather than this midnight dash serving as some form of check that might inform his thinking–to make him pause and consider a truly fundamental change in policy–it is more likely a form of political marketing. The "dash", as described in the article above, was actually in the planning stages for a couple of days by White House staff. And the press was notified of the trip several hours in advance. Unusually short notice to be sure–but that rushed notice helped to provide the tone of the coverage–the feeling by reporters that here they were participating in something unplanned, unscripted. Something raw and revealing.

And to a large extent that ploy has worked. I urge you to read the linked piece completely–it is a very short and easy read. Obama is being compared to Bush, and the thread is suddenly out there that "Bush never visited the coffins". It is as if this was the real change Americans voted for–the old president wouldn’t go see the coffins, but this new one–he’ll go to see them. Publicly, and with press coverage. The cameras whirring. Obama will go see them, and he wants to ensure that you know he is seeing them.

If anything, Obama’s political and communications staff have improved Bush policy on this issue significantly. Bush would not allow any form of press coverage of the nation’s returning dead. Obama, in contrast, has relaxed that policy, on the belief that a nation has the right and obligation to see and appreciate the costs of its actions.

And if that relaxed policy provides exciting "midnight dashes" for sleepy night-shift reporters of the White House press corps, and if those reporters churn out somber and dignified political cover for expanding military operations in two South Asian countries, so much the better.