[V K Lee]

It isn’t uncommon for those who commit suicide to be called cowards. Ask any psychoanalyst (not that I agree with them). Bush, still wet behind the ears, had no clue what he was saying at the time. He was only attempting to avoid the ‘deer in the headlights’ look; which in his case was unavoidable.

As to the cowboy reference - perhaps that superimposes his image with that of Ronald Reagan, although there is certainly a difference between the two.

[poconopundit]

Shakespeare had something to say here.

To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause. There's the respect
that makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
the Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely,
the pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
the insolence of Office, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his Quietus make
with a bare Bodkin [dagger]? Who would Fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country, from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have,
than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all...
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.

The 9/11 terrorists had the courage and "resolution" to take "action" on their "enterprise of great pitch and moment". The rest is history.