Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Gates open to lifting ban on casket photos
The controversial policy that bans media coverage of flag-draped caskets arriving from the war theater to Dover Air Force Base, Del., is once again being reviewed with an eye toward reversal, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday...
...Gates said he ordered the review after President Barack Obama said Monday night during a nationally broadcast news conference that the White House is "in the process of reviewing those policies."...
...Gates, a Bush administration holdover who has served in the Pentagon's top job since December 2006, said he looked into changing the policy a little over a year ago.
He said the answer he received, partly the result of talks with family members of fallen troops, was that if reporters and photographers were allowed to view the return of flag-draped caskets at Dover, "many of the families would feel compelled to be there for those ceremonies for their fallen hero."
"For these families, this would delay the return of the remains home," he said. "For others, it would be a financial hardship to get to Dover. And there were some privacy concerns."
But, Gates added, "I think that looking at it again makes all kinds of sense."
Media coverage of military remains arriving at ports of entry was once permitted but came to a halt by Pentagon decree during the 1991 Gulf War, on Feb. 2, 1991...
If the ghoulish coffin paparazzi think it's oh-so-important to their political cause to get photos of flag-draped coffins, then let them pick up the obituaries and head down to the cemetery where they can confront the family, explain their purpose and get permission. In other words, show a little respect. I'm sure some will grant it, others certainly won't. Let's be honest, no one is interested in in making an issue out of some "right" to photograph these coffins because they're interested in exalting the sacrifice of these soldiers, they're only interested in undermining it, and our nation's ability to defend itself. So show a little honesty and openness yourself, and go face the families of the fallen. You might get a better story anyway...or learn something in the process.
I have a son, nephew and niece in the military, as well as more than 20 friends and former Scouts from my local Boy Scout District. I have no doubt that the MSM wants access to Dover for political purposes, and to further their anti-military agenda. Shameful.
The MSM, Malevolent Socialist Media, want access to publicise dead American soldiers and demoralize the citizenry.
I hope the MSM is eager to show us the carcasses of dead mujahadeen.
Tom G., God Bless and keep your nephew and niece and their fellow soldiers safe.
The primary consideration here, I would presume to imagine despite the holy bona fides of the Fourth Estate, is to help protect the privacy of the families and the dead themselves. Are we, as a democratic republic, in danger of not being aware of the grievous costs associated with war?
Yet, in the trumpeted name of "right to know" and "free speech absolutism" and similarly intoned forms of "righteousness," by the self-aggrandizing and self-enamored Fourth Estate, Sec-Def Gates, as a result of BHO's subservient performance before the media, begins to evidence some unseemly colors, another tell-tale indicator.
If the dead and the coffins were somehow being secreted, it would certainly be an issue of note, but such is not remotely the case.
And yet, any arrogation and presumption by the Fourth Estate, no matter HOW presumptuous, is all to be placed under some vaunted label.
"Coffin paparazzi" is, supremely and sickeningly, apropos.