U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he may be willing to reconsider a ban on the photographing of slain soliders’ flag-draped coffins.
Gates said that he was ordering a review of the military policy that bars photographers from taking pictures of the return of the coffins, most of which go through Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, The New York Times reported.
“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 in Washington.
The policy was put into place in 1991 and has been renewed several times, most recently by the Bush administration a year ago. That’s when Gates raised the possibility of changing the policy, he said, but was told by unnamed administration officials that allowing photographers would put undue pressure on families to go to Dover themselves.
Critics say the coffin-photo ban is a political ploy meant to sanitize the unpopular Iraq war.
Will that ploy be changed to past tense?
But RC, bobbo tells us the daily Afghanistan body count increases the pro-war fever.
RBG
If the funerals are paid for by your tax pennies, then photographs should be allowed and images taken should then be part of the public domain, not any one news organization like AP that loves to sue people for legal use.
#21–RBG–I’m not for keeping troops in Afghanistan. Don’t know about the public in general. Don’t care what the troops think.
Meanwhile in Canada:
But in an unprecedented and controversial decision, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor banned all media from the air base to cover the repatriation of the four slain soldiers. That reversed the department’s long-standing policy of allowing reporters on to the base to cover the return of deceased soldiers.
http://tinyurl.com/aabv4z
I suspect no one thought anyone would actually be killed in a war. Its such a downer to one’s necessary motivation.
RBG
23 bobbo So you were ok with the Bin Laden & buddies working from Afghanistan? Or were you thinking more that Al Qaeda just needed to be reasoned with? or that the World Trade building folks got what was coming to them? or that Bush secretly was the one who actually brought those towers down?
RBG
22 HTF. See that’s why I’m for state-subsidized gynecological examinations.
“In 1996, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld the ban after media outlets and some other organizations
sued to have it lifted. Citing the need to reduce the hardship and protect the privacy of grieving families, the court held that
the ban did not violate First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press.
The National Military Family Association, one of the largest military-advocacy groups, supports the policy. “The families that
we’ve heard from are more interested in their privacy and would hope that people would be sensitive to them in their time of loss,”
said Kathy Moakler, deputy director of government relations for the organization.”
http://www.frankwbaker.com/wardeadphotos.htm
RBG
If you want pictures of coffins with flags on them why not buy your own or just use the old ones unless you are trying to use the dead as part of your political agenda?
Don’t bleep on the dead and their families. People who don’t show any respect aren’t going to get any.
Looks like Gates fell down and went BOOM! unless he was in a car wreck or something?
#25–RBG==you sure ask a lot of questions. Shows an inquisitive mind???
23 bobbo So you were ok with the Bin Laden & buddies working from Afghanistan?/// Nope==but we would have been far better off to let them blow up a building every ten years than what our response has been so far. ((Not trolling, just an economic fact==cheaper, and fewer people killed. Part of the cost of being a world power.))
Or were you thinking more that Al Qaeda just needed to be reasoned with?/// They should be found and killed. If we can’t do that in 10 years something is entirely corrupt. Time for a new game plan.
or that the World Trade building folks got what was coming to them? /// How could that possibly be?
or that Bush secretly was the one who actually brought those towers down? /// He was then, and is now, not competent enough to do that even if he wanted to.
What does any of these questions have to do with whether or not pictures should be taken of arriving flag drapped coffins?
You are a silly bunny.
If the coffin photo ban gets lifted then I won’t be surprised it shows up on TV…and posting the photos themselves is political. In which case they better post photos of the aftermath of suicide bombers and other terrorist attacks–not the cleaned up ones (or showing smoke/wreckage from a distance), but the real thing. That won’t happen because it’s too ‘provocative’.
28 bobbo: “What does any of these questions have to do with whether or not pictures should be taken of arriving flag draped coffins?”
#23 bobbo: –RBG–I’m not for keeping troops in Afghanistan.
My answer in 23 is a complimentary service to help you think through why there are US troops in Afghanistan and coffins coming home, Doc.
RBG
We get a new president. But what a surprise. The old guard running the Pentagon remains, to keep the secrets. Nothing has changed as far as how the Iraq war is conducted. This is the Pentagon’s show. And all Obama can do is to go along with it. Or he’ll be shown the door by Gates and fiends.
#14 OBOB
That makes more sense.
Although Clinton upheld the ban there far fewer bodies returning home.
We just lost a man on another blog and his military funeral was video taped and photographed for those of us who could not make it. The family was all for it when they realized what he meant to the group.
Bobbo, I wasn’t referring to Vietnam, but rather the first Gulf War. Sr. President Bush is on the air and CNN and others would put up a split screen with coffins coming off a plane, despite only about 30 dead.
Cheney was in the wheelchair, Gates has a cast on his hand. New trend?
To the best of my knowledge, Clinton had a total of two Army helicopter pilots die. If there were any more then please correct me.
#31, Glenn,
And all Obama can do is to go along with it. Or he’ll be shown the door by Gates and fiends.
Comments like that can get you a visit from people in dark suits and lots of questions. Fomenting rebellion is a capitol offense.
#33–Mike==”despite only about 30 dead” /// What do numbers have to do with respect for each one of them?
# 34 Mr. Fusion said, “To the best of my knowledge, Clinton had a total of two Army helicopter pilots die. If there were any more then please correct me.”
4 MPs, 18 soldiers & about 77 wounded in Somalia that I remember.