Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins

[Spazito]

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.

<snip>

A White House spokesman said Bush has not attended any memorials or funerals for soldiers killed in action during his presidency as his predecessors had done, although he has met with families of fallen soldiers and has marked the loss of soldiers in Memorial Day and Sept. 11, 2001, remembrances.

more

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

[dbt]

1. Damned if this ain't a smoking gun!

:grr:
dbt

[Atlant]

10. So, is this, oh, about the 1,395th "smoking gun"?

It's pretty clear that the American people 1) don't know shit and
2) are perfectly happy in that state.

If they vote out Bush, it'll be for one reason: They lost their
job(s).

And they're not going to vote out the Congress, so it won't
make any difference anyway; the Corporate Government will
still own all the power that really matters.

Atlant

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

2. UK still has free press - photos of flag-draped coffins

http://www.operations.mod.uk/telic/casualties.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. And that's not even the press

That's the Ministry of Defence itself. It's nice to know they're still honest. Maybe it's because they're professional soldiers that they don't spin and dissemble, unlike the politicians.

[gratuitous]

3. Stupidhead "has marked the loss of soldiers"

So Dopey has remembered the fallen on Memorial Day and on the September 11 anniversaries, big freakin' deal.

Well, never let it be said that Chimpy doesn't do the least he can do. It would be difficult to do less than this. What a disgrace this man is: Perfectly willing to send young men off to their deaths to line his own and his buddies' pockets, but he doesn't want to see the results of his own handiwork. And he doesn't want anyone else to see it, either.

Fortunately, the supine media will cooperate totally with this censorship, and never ask this corrupt administration about all those coffins coming through Dover. Assholes.

[djg21]

4. Assh--e

No one from Shrubs administration even wrote the family when my wife's cousing was killed in Iraq over the summer.

[Armstead]

5. This ought to make conservatives and the media mad--- HA

The gonadless media fawn all over the troops and give us happy talk about their service and their personal lives and military ceremonies when things were going "well" in Iraq.

But then they're willing to go along with a black-out and igfnore them when they die or are injured.

And the stupid conservatives want to ignore the dead because that is too uncomfortable. So they let themselves be manipulated.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Didn't think I could feel more rage toward these people, until

I read this article. They knew this war couldn't pass "the Dover test," so the young soldiers dying in it go without honor from their country. This is an utterly shameful act, by a shameless bunch who call themselves patriots. And Bush is AWOL yet again.

[Mari333]

7. Its about damned time they talked about this

Its about damned time..
where the F is the outrage.

[rocktivity]

8. Way to support the troops, Georgie

Pretend they don't exist...and don't pretend that it's lack of public support for the war that you're worried about. You're worried about a lack of public support for YOU.


rocknation