Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins

Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins
Dana Milbank

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.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein airbase or Dover base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains...

President Bush's opponents say he is trying to keep the spotlight off the fatalities in Iraq. "This administration manipulates information and takes great care to manage events, and sometimes that goes too far," said Joe Lockhart, who as White House press secretary joined President Bill Clinton at several ceremonies for returning remains. "For them to sit there and make a political decision because this hurts them politically -- I'm outraged."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55816-2003Oct20.html

"Pay no attention to the coffins behind the curtain"???

...can't have a steady stream of dead American soldiers coming home while Bush* is trying to raise campaign cash for the 2004 election.

their sons and daughters are nice and safe blowing away brain cells at Frat parties and the college of their expensive little choice.

Other than granting privacy to the grieving relatives, one could argue that allowing reporters to cover returning dead could potentially weaken the country's resolve for fighting.

If the war in question were a "just" war, a war for national survival, I might not have a problem with that. However, I've yet to become aware of ANY war the United States has been involved in since 1865 (excluding WW II, I could even argue that THAT war didn't threaten our survival - anyway, I digress) that meets that standard.

Instead, what we have had are wars, military actions, police actions, call them what you will, fought under false pretenses (i.e. the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming, War on Terror) that served the economic interests of a certain few at the expense of the many for unjust causes. This above all else is why "Presidents have worried" what the country's reaction might be.