The colour of death

Another sign of Dubya's sugarcoated war; the dude who arrives at a house to tell the family that their Marine son or daughter is dead wears green, and not Marine blue (via the Wall Street Journal, subs. req'd):

Military parents object to Marines' decision to deliver death notifications in green uniforms; commanders didn't want traditional dress blues linked to bad news. Candy Wasser, whose son Chris Wasser was killed in early 2004, says the blue uniform conveys appropriate solemnity "without words."

If this is the filtering of bad news that goes on at the cosmetic level, imagine what's going with the really bad news.