Dear Democrats, the Republicans are handing us the Military

[calimary]

50. I think there's an additional reason why they were happy.

During bush/Cheney’s wrong-headed Iraq War-of-Choice, the decision was made NOT to show anything regarding the war dead. No photos. No coverage of the REAL cost of war that come wrapped in a flag-draped coffin with sorrowful women and children following behind. Oh no. Those images were baaaaaaaaad. Don’t want people to see. They might not want to support the war! And we can’t have that because we’ve gotta grab the oil - and beat Saddam (“9/11! 9/11!”!) who, btw, had nothing to do with 9/11. But we need the “Rah! Rah! Rah!” for the damn war!

So somebody there (wouldn’t surprise me if it was cheney himself) gave the order that no photography was allowed. No coverage of soldiers’ burials at Arlington National Cemetery. No shots of coffins loaded onto transport planes. No nothing that would remind the public of the blood, death, dismemberment, widowhood, any of that. After all, we can’t have the public turning against the war!!! Remember how all the coverage of Vietnam sunk public opinion? And ruined LBJ? Nope! Can’t have that! Can’t go there!

I remember stories of news people getting fired because they dared to show photos of a funeral, the flag-draped coffin, the grieving widow, the fatherless children (usually small children). One woman photographer almost had her head handed to her, risked her career, to get a shot of some dozen or so coffins just loaded into the back of the plane. She caught hell for it and almost lost her job. This happened at newspapers big and small, as well as the big networks.

By contrast...
One of the earliest acts of the then-new President Obama went to Dover Air Force Base to meet the coffins of the dead when they arrived from overseas. In the middle of the night. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accompanied him, dressed in black. Remember the two of them standing together hand-in-hand near the open back end of the transport plane, where the ramp had been set up to carry soldiers’ coffins one-by-one gently down to the tarmac? And there was coverage of those solemn moment when their Commander-in-Chief personally acknowledged their sacrifice by BEING RIGHT THERE TO MEET THEM WHEN THEY FINALLY WERE BROUGHT HOME FOR THE LAST TIME. All the cameras were there. And it got coverage alright. Lots of it. Live coverage.

President Barack Obama wasn’t afraid to have America see this, as bush/cheney were. It wasn’t kept a secret. And it shouldn’t have EVER been kept a secret. Not EVER.

I’ll always love and respect him for that. And another reason why I'll always love Hillary, too.