Why is President Bush Maintaining a Ban On Seeing War’s Rturnng Casualties

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Investigative piece on Bush and war dead.

President Bush has still yet to attend the funeral of a single U.S. soldier killed in action since he took office and his administration is maintaining a ban on journalists filming caskets returning to the U.S. from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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On December 21 1989, President George Bush senior was holding a press conference about the US intervention in Panama as the first American fatalities from the conflict were arriving at Dover.
At the beginning of the briefing the president had told reporters he was suffering from neck pain. At the end he did a duck walk to illustrate his stiffness.

Unbeknown to the White House, three major news networks had moved to a split screen. While the president shared his light-hearted moment with the press corps on one half, America's dead were arriving in caskets on the other. It was a public relations disaster. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater described the coverage as "outrageous and unfair" and vowed to express his "extreme dissatisfaction" to the channels concerned.
<snip>

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/11/153256

Link to 128k stream: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2003/nov/128/dn20031111a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=13:53.6

Link to 256k stream: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2003/nov/256/dnB20031111a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=13:53.6

(Real Player required)

Definitely worth watching for a Democratic take on Veterans Day during an unjust war.

[Pale_Rider]

1. UK Guardian's Steve Bell sums it up the best ...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Too true. You have to listen to these Mothers and wives speaking

out against the war and telling about real conditions in Iraq.

[Gephard]

3. More prejudicial, than probative

I would guess.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Could you elaborate?

[jpgray]

6. LOL, never mind my unedited post. :-)

I must be tired today.

:)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. Prejudicial in the sense they are reporting conversations from Iraq

that haven't been filtered by FCC controlled media.

I guess to some, that's a bad thing.

[jpgray]

5. Eh, don't we have Bill of Rights or something like that?

These headlines are depressing for their casualness.

[jonoboy]

8. this is a disgrace.

It's the role of a genuine leader to lead a country in it's moments of mourning. Besides doesn't he realise what a great photo op it would be ?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Wrogn lesson from NAM

#12

Show the body bags the people will turn against the war

Reality

Don't show any human emontion when the Chinook gets shot down, and
be seen as a bastard by the people

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Because photographs of the coffins coming back from Vietnam were

the nail on the coffin of the Vietnam conflict. (Technically, it wasn't a war.)

[Sequoia]

11. How far can this go? Why can't any TV station

air this? What would happen if some little TV station in some little town actually did air body bags then what? Would anyone go to jail over it? Is the media just not doing it out of fear. I'm very puzzled about this. What if a station started showing old reels of body bags coming from Vietnam instead and then have a little trailer go across the screen real fast that it was Vietnam, but people might think it's from Iraq?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

14. Maybe symbolic recreations in honor of the dead?

Actually, that's not a bad idea for a group. Easy publicity as well. Once a week have a public ceremony , read the names and pass the flag draped coffins.

Mr. Soros, if your reading this... Call me. Let's do lunch. :evilgrin:

[maddezmom]

12. I think the term

CHICKENhawk sums it up.

[radfringe]

13. simple - outta site outta mind

every "transport" tube that's shown being unloaded is a reminder of Baghdad Bush's failure...can't have the people thinking about that in the middle of a campaign