Baltimore Sun: Few Americans see caskets come home

[displacedtexan]

Mods,
Most of the paragraphs in this article are single sentences. If I have pasted too much, please edit.
Thanks!



Few Americans see caskets come home
Dover: A news media blackout instituted to ensure privacy for soldiers' families also protects policymakers as war casualties mount.

By Gus G. Sentementes
Sun National Staff
Originally published February 17, 2004

DOVER, Del. - If Lupita Rubio's husband died in Iraq, she'd want to see his remains returned to nearby Dover Air Force Base, marked with a ceremony seen by all.

"I would like for him to get the recognition he deserves," said Rubio, 38, while eating lunch at the Corner Eatery with her husband, a load- master on a C-5 military cargo plane.

snip

During the Vietnam War, images of caskets by the hundreds being unloaded at Dover had a powerful impact on the American public. The images evolved into a kind of political shorthand: Could the nation's resolve survive the "Dover test"?

The media blackout enables the military and policymakers in Washington to sidestep the question. A White House spokesman declined to comment on the policy.

snip

"What's really hard to wrap your head around is that there's some mother grieving right now," Evans said. "You need to pay respect to the fact that these aren't just five caskets coming home tonight. They're so much more real than that."

snip

"That's all you hear on TV, it's a count," said Hutchings, her voice quavering. "It's nothing but a count."

She said she received a "typed, generic letter" of condolence from President Bush.

"I'm sure everybody got the same one," Hutchings said. "I'm not impressed at all."

more:
http://tinyurl.com/2ngkf

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Who really benefits from this blackout policy? The families or the Bush* administration?

[meti57b]

1. considering bush is ...

just the frontman for the administration,, the least he could do is attend these funerals. I can only imagine how sickening the discussion was at the meeting where they decided whether bush should attend these funerals or whether it would bring more attention to their failed policy of war. The bush administration, cold, calculating and despicable even as it regards attending the funerals that result from the unnecessary death of these brave young people.

[Design8edGrouch]

2. I have thought about this alot

Since there is a ban on photographing the caskets of the soldiers killed in Iraq, the only way to legally remind US citizens of the price that has to be paid for war is to show archival footage of the caskets bearing the bodies of the Viet Nam soldiers with a comment similar to:
"Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17th. 2 (or whatever the actual number) were killed today in Iraq. 31 years ago today, this was the scene at the Dover AFB as the body(ies) of the soldier(s) killed in action were returned to their grieving families."

I truly believe that the spirit of the dead soldiers from our war in Viet Nam would be proud to stand in for our dead today that cannot receive the honor that is due to them.