"It's Clinton's fault!" - Again!

[Grins]

Well, looks like Bill did it again. Out of office for almost 3 years and still causing trouble.

“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.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the military-wide policy actually dates from about November 2000 - the last days of the Clinton administration(!!) - but it apparently went unheeded and unenforced, as images of caskets returning from the Afghanistan war appeared on television broadcasts and in newspapers until early this year. Though Dover Air Force Base, which has the military's largest mortuary, has had restrictions for 12 years, others "may not have been familiar with the policy," the spokeswoman said. This year, "we've really tried to enforce it."

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."

To be fair, the Pentagon made denials, but only spoke on condition of anonymity. But why would they feel they have to hide their identities to explain their own policy? A state secret?

Does the Bush administration ever take responsibility for anything?

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

[JHB]

1. Bush? Take responsibility? That's a Non Sequitur...

[Bozita]

3. I immediately thought of this 'toon when reading the article

Thanks.

[Demobrat]

2. Another thing that's Clinton's fault

is that the troops wounded in Iraq are living in squalor without proper medical care. Scarborough explained it all last night.

[Wickerman]

4. Uuggh, I'm confused again

I thought things were going just ducky in Iraq? Why worry about images like dead GIs and coffins when we have recently finished a barrage of propoganda telling us the media has it all wrong - the situation is Iraq is under control and Bush* IS in control. No, really, he is. He said so, so he is, get it?

[speckledgator]

5. Top 10 things that are Clinton's fault

10) Wore Hai Karate to Siegfried and Roy show, confusing tiger which resulted in Roy falling down, which resulted in Montecore carrying Roy offstage
edit cause the "0" and ")" are on the same dang key!

[hatrack]

6. 9. Caused the recent Hokkaido earthquake

Bill had a hard-on while briefly facing W/NW and the Asian and Pacific crustal plates, sensing the mighty power of Clenis, moved in response!

[speckledgator]

7. ok ok I'll buy that

but it could be I'm just weak from lack of Oxyrush

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Number 8

Made it all look so easy that the U.S. Supreme Court thought an underachieving silver spoon slacker could handle the job.

[Wetzelbill]

8. this policy started back when Bush Sr, got caught cracking jokes and

smiling around on tv after we took out Noriega in Operation Just Cause. When I say "got caught" I mean national coverage split screened his jocular routine along with flag draped caskets of American soldiers being carted out of an airplane. Oops. Since then the ban came into effect and Clinton just continued it. That's why both our Iraq wars have been sanitized so much in the U.S. because Bush Sr, and his Secretary of Defense , some guy named Dick Cheney, started the policy of media cleansing in all of our future conflicts. Instead of bodies piling up like firewood in Vietnam, we get images of Ahmed Chalabi's buddies cheering while soldiers knock down Saddam's statues. The art of bloodless war.