RE: [Leica] XXX of the YYY? WAS (something else) (fwd)

[Tim Atherton <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

> Eric
>
> The decision to keep reporters away from bodies being returned and from
> funerals was not a political decision made by the Bush
> Administration but a
> social decision made by the Department of Defense to spare the families of
> the dead from becoming ensnared in some reporter's political agenda.
> Funerals ought to be VERY private affairs, a chance for the deceased's
> loved ones to honor him as he is interred, not a Media Event of Political
> Significance.
>
> The genesis for this ruling came after the AmVets, VFW, and
> American Legion
> requested DoD to so act, incidentally.
>
> Marc

It isn't just or even the funerals, but any public coverage of the arrival
of America's young war dead, at Dover AFB for example or at their arrival in
transit at Ramstein.

Interestingly and in contrast, when Canada's war dead have returned recently
(whether from US bombs or Afghan land mines) they have been met very
publicly at the airport by the Governor General, representing the Queen of
Canada, along with senior politicians and Military officers..

Or for British war dead (my own former Regiment having suffered it's
greatest number of casualties in Iraq since Jewish terrorists blew up the
King David hotel), the bodies have been met at RAF Brize Norton usually by
senior members of the Defence Staff, The Minister of Defence and a member of
the Royal Family.

From the Washington Post:

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 [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops,"
the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning
remains.

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." more'=

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A5
5816-2003Oct20&notFound=true

I guess this should move to the forum now




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