I only know my own response -

[kyburg]

So fair warning.

Photographs of flag-draped cases bearing American casualties from Iraq should not have been made public under a Pentagon policy prohibiting media coverage of human remains, officials said.

"Quite frankly, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified," said John Molino, a deputy undersecretary of defense.

I've seen the pictures. They're lovely tributes, as far as I can tell. We honor our dead with great care, even when nobody is looking. That's what I'm taking away from them.

I'm the person who spent more on my late husband's obituary than nearly any other part of his funeral. I think the plot was the only thing that cost more. I wanted people to see his passing - there was nothing "undignified" about the fact he was dead. He was a unique creation and gone forever. Here's your last chance to admire him - know something about him - before history moves on and leaves him behind.

Are survivors to be embarrassed now? That's incredible to fathom - are we creating yet another class of eta to be ignored in our culture? And those wounded and returned home, is it to be a secret?

These people, while I don't agree with any part of the why they have been put in harm's way, have given so much of themselves in doing it - that needs recognition above and beyond any part of my opinion of whether it was right or wrong.

Or popular.

Pro-life, my ass.

The whole thing relegates lives to the level of currency. You don't photograph the money you spent; you don't photograph the lives you spent.

...the shame is fucking incredible...there are no words.

EDIT: This is just as incredible - because they were volunteers, they were troublemakers? Wow.

Comments

[neintales.livejournal.com]

I agree. I was sooo angry again when I saw that on the news...

"In the wishes of the families" my ass. I'll believe that when they show me a petition signed by the families of the fallen soldiers saying that they are against the public being able to see photos of the coffins being respected, and that they do not want anyone to pause to think about their children who are lost...

Show me the families you're speaking for, Oh Great Pentagon Officials.

[elfwench.livejournal.com]

This seems to me as if the Bush administration is trying to shield the public from full comprehension of the losses. It's one thing to hear the numbers on the TV, though at most you only hear if someone locally was injured or killed in the war, but it's quite another to actually see the devastation. While it's one thing to show the bodies and body parts on the battlefield, and I can see where that would be disturbing and disrespectful to the dead, it's quite another to have tasteful pictures of the many, many flag-draped caskets which convey the losses and I see no disrespect in that.

[turandot.livejournal.com]

This seems to me as if the Bush administration is trying to shield the public from full comprehension of the losses.

That is exactly why this administration keeps everything, not just the blood on their hands, hush-hush.

Put yourself in the shoes of a Bush supporter (it's really hard for me, I can barely manage): a soccer mom living in suburbia, or a white collar stiff that goes to see Nascar events every chance he gets. If s/he hears the numbers of dead on tv, they might feel sad, bad about it for five minutes, then they go on not questioning why this has to happen.

But have them grapple with the visual evidence of what's going on, of the lives of kids (who in some cases got in the military in order to be able to get a higher education after their service, something that's quickly becoming unaffordable in this country otherwise) being expended for questionable motives, and it would make them think "My god, did I really vote to make this happen? This could be my son/daughter out there! Aren't I responsible for this, by voting the way I did?". That is exactly what this Administration does not want to happen.

I would show you an article that appeared in my local paper, but I won't link to it, because there is an annoying (i.e., rather intrusive for my taste) free registration process to view it online. I can tell you the jist of it, and tell you I was nodding so hard while reading it that I thought I was going to get a whiplash:

There is a chasm between people in this country, based on income, or on political leanings perhaps, but a chasm nonetheless. Some Americans choose to be informed and informing, and some prefer to wallow in ignorance. The former are often accused of intellectualism, with the word quickly becoming the next dirty word in public domain. The Bush administration drapes itself in anti-intellectualism: this president openly claims he decided to go to war based on what his Almighty deity told him to, not because all the facts were there.

To most of us who are prone to question everything, that is utter bullshit, and we can't believe he's getting away with that answer. But most people, I fear, never look at it that way: it's an answer, and any answer will do, so long as it gets them back to the little problems in their life.

So Bush continues to get away with this, and what's worse, I think that our administration isn't alone: our media and our culture coddle this ignorance, package it to be consumed, and to obtain better ratings. After all, you can sell any bill of goods to anyone if no one knows, is not even allowed to know what's in the box.

It's time to look long and hard inside that box. I'm glad there are still people out there that dare to force us to.

[lordindra.livejournal.com]

People need to know the cost of war. Coffins make it more real than a random soundbit of "700 dead".. what does that mean? Weren't thousands killed in single battles in WWII? Without making the sacrifices real, the 700 number can be used to trivialize the human cost.

If the soldiers names were put in with the pictures against the families wishes, I could see people having a problem with it, but otherwise, screw that. People deserve to know the cost of war. Only by comprehending the full cost... human as well as economic, can someone decide if this war really is or is not worth the effort.

[sithdragn.livejournal.com]

It's the visual of it all the government fears. We can hear the facts of how many people died in Vietnam and feel remorse, but people will take one look at the Vietnam Memorial Wall and people break down. The photos are in-your-face realization of what was just numbers reported over the radio every morning.

[aka-baphomet.livejournal.com]

"He was a unique creation and gone forever."

Wow.. what a moving beautiful sentance.

Thank you.

[angelicate.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's as though they want to bring these people home and get them in thr ground without anyone really realizing that they're dead. Sure, you see on the news that "4 US soldiers were lost today." but actually seeing rows of flag-draped coffins makes people actually realize how many people have lost their lives.

[neintales.livejournal.com]

Japan has some verrry messed up things about it. I feel so sorry for those people :/

Seems like too many people want to jump all over attempts to show a little love and compassion.. argh.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

"no media coverage of human remains"?

So wait, its ok to have all those shows based on real-life police cases and all the rest, glorifying violence and high-speed pursuit as entertainment, and the news media on the scene covering crime and shootings, but draped coffins of men and women who have died in service are not allowed to be shown?

One of the (very few) things I actually admire about the US military is the care they show their dead, and the trouble that is taken to honour them with flags and respect. Why hide it? Oh, wait, I know, because the fact that in war people actually *die*, and these are good Americans and not those weird foreign guys who are dying, isn't good for the government's "image".

[titos2cents.livejournal.com]

I think the only thing undignified about the flag-drapped coffins is that they aren't being shown publicly. Were their lives of so little consequence that we can't pay tribute to them publicly for even the 15 seconds that it would take to broadcast them?

I wonder if Bush has made it to a funeral yet? He's had more than 700 chances so far.