The president and the Pentagon say that families of soldiers killed in Iraq want the ban on pictures of their sons' and daughters' caskets returning home. At least one family says otherwise.
The Pentagon says it has barred publication out of respect to "families' feelings and requests". But many relatives of soldiers who died in Iraq believe the White House is trying to cover up what is happening there. Sue Niederer said she was refused permission to see the return of her son Seth Dvorin's body as it was flown into the Dover base. Lieutenant Dvorin, 24, from the 101st Airborne Division, was killed in February while trying to disarm a roadside bomb, a task for which he was not trained.Speaking from her home in New Jersey, Mrs Niederer said: "They killed my son and they did not permit me to be there to see the coffin. They said it was for health reasons, and ... they did not want the public to see it and they did not want the newspapers there." She added: "They don't want any of this being shown because it's reality. A coffin strikes home. If you don't see the coffin you just say: 'Oh, there's another one who has died.' But when you show the coffin, you show families, you show people and emotions. This is what they are doing this is what they do not want you to see."
I don't get how "respecting the family's privacy" includes barring a mother from seeing her own son's casket return to the U.S. I do, however, have a theory.
Having seen the pictures the images of the caskets returning to the U.S., draped in flags, saluted and treated with the utmost respect doesn't seem that alarming. The photos are somber, and nearly antiseptic. The real problem for the pentagon, I think, is that these pictures are but one step removed from pictures they really don't want the American public to see; pictures of what happened to those soldiers before they ended up in closed caskets. Those pictures just might really cause people to question and cease to support the war. And the Pentagon (and the president, and Haliberton, and Amhed Chalabi, etc.) can't afford that.
can i see a picture of you and your family fro my spanish project. and no i'm not spanish i am black and white.
Thank you
Posted by: Ciara Martinze | May 26, 2004 at 04:24 PM
can i see a picture of you and your family fro my spanish project. and no i'm not spanish i am black and white.
Thank you
Posted by: Ciara Martinze | May 26, 2004 at 04:24 PM