I’m sorry, I’m not buying it.
The Pentagon says that they are upset that Russ Kick, a first amendment advocate, published photos of American coffins draped in American flags returning from Iraq because “they wish to protect the privacy of the families during their time of greatest loss and grief.”
Bullshit.
No one knows who are in those coffins. No one's privacy has been violated.
We just know American men and women are in those coffins. And the Pentagon knows, that at least historically speaking, the more coffins we see the less support this “war” is going to have.
There is only one reason for this ban and that is to minimize the impact of the loss of life on public opinion.
Period.
Good thing it isn’t PC for God to strike people down with lightning bolts anymore. They would never get that place rebuilt.
I don't care what they say about freedom of press in this country there are limits to everything.
That is the reason why US coverage of Iraq has been so drastically different than coverage in other places around the world.
Al-Jazeera can find a mortally wounded baby to plaster on their program every single night. When is the last time you’ve seen anyone dead on CNN, FOX or World Nightly News?
Dubya of course came out in support of the ban on the photos using the same logic that this is really about "respect for the families" and not that his re-election bid is believed to be riding on the perception of this war.
"The sensitivities and the privacy of the families of the fallen must be the first priority and remain to be the first priority," White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters traveling with Bush aboard Air Force One.
You know what? Does anyone really believe that Bush actually said that? I swear that sentence could never have come out of his mouth even if he was reading it off a teleprompter. Have you noticed that whenever someone tells us what Bush has said it always sounds 10 times more articulate than when we hear it actually come out of his mouth?
So what is more important military policy or constitutionally protected freedom of information?
Is this a terrorist issue like everything else nowadays?
Are the Bush supporters going to argue that this ban is the correct thing to do because terrorist could get a hold of these photographs and figure out how best to take down our national power grid system?
What is the “we are just making the world a safer place from terrorist” reason for this blatant disregard for the first amendment?
Oh besides respecting the privacy of greiving families by not showing closed coffins draped in American flags.