President Barack Obama's administration is reviewing a Pentagon policy banning media from taking pictures of flag-draped coffins returning fallen U.S. servicemen.
"If the needs of the families can be met, and the privacy concerns can be addressed, the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better," Gates told reporters at a Pentagon news conference Tuesday. "So I'm pretty open to whatever the results of this review may be."
Flag-Draped Coffins -- Truth or Politics? | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
With all due respect to the General, I totally disagree, for several reasons.
First, and foremost, there doesn’t need to be a band of paparazzi to capture the families as they bring their sons and daughters home.
Second, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, the press is biased, I am too, but at least I tell you that, the press doesn’t. Just as during the Vietnam War, these pictures would be drummed into the minds full of mush to reinforce the “war is bad”, “stop the war”, “end the war”, code pink crowd. Some battles are very much worth fighting, and in so fighting some warriors, some brave young men and woman from our heretofore blessed Nation will perish. To take pictures of their flag draped coffins and then use those pictures in a way so as to sway public opinion, if possible that is more despicable than the William Ayers Photo.
Third, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of family and freinds of service people stationed all over the globe. With this service comes risk, it doesn’t have to be in Iraq or Afganistan, it can be in South Africa, Australia, Japan, Great Britain. It can be under the ocean, in the sky, even in outer space. Flashing these pictures does nothing but raise the tension for all of these people, including the ones that are serving. How would the reporters feel if every day they had to review the story of Doug Vogt and Bob Woodruff? Or perhaps the cover of every reporters notebook had the picture of WWII Reporter Ernie Pyle on it. Do you think that perhaps the reporters and their families and friends would start to get uneasy?
Fourth, I am very pro-military, very pro-military family, but #4 could also be #1. If you publish these photos, all the time every time, you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy that you wish to defeat (At least I hope that is our goal still). The Taliban and Al Qaeda are quite good at propaganda, not as good as Pelosi and Reid mind you but good none the less.
There is no cover up, we know how many deaths there have been, we know their names and where they come from. This is purely a matter of privacy and decorum for the families that have given more than we can ask in words, and it is also a matter of denying our foes the fuels for their fires.
