Coming Home
 

We have heard much flack this past week over the release of photos showing rows of flag-draped coffins in a cargo plane that will take our fallen heroes on their final journey home.

War is brutal, but if we are going to follow George W. Bush's foreign policy of waging a series of pre-emptive wars, we have a responsibility to our troops to look squarely into the face of war in all its ugliness before sending more of them into harm's way. These are America's sons and daughters, but they are also the son or daughter of real parents. They are spouses, they are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers and friends who had hopes and dreams and plans that now will never be.

The Pentagon this week, said it shouldn't have released those pictures and has barred further releases of photos.

In a speech last week Mr. Bush said, "Nobody wants to see coffins on their TV sets. I don't want to see coffins on my TV set." We know his mother, Barbara Bush, doesn't. The day before the start of the war she told Diane Sawyer in an interview she would watch "none" of TV's war coverage because "90 percent" of it would be speculative. Mrs. Bush continued: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? . . . It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Well, tough. If we wanted war, we should be forced to look at its effects, at the death and destruction, and body bags. The administration had no misgivings about showing the "shock and awe" of our bombs lighting up the skies of Iraq on our TV sets last year. The people of Iraq saw it up close and personal. We can't simply cover our eyes now because we don't want to see it.

The reason being given for denying access to those photos is a gross insult to our intelligence. The Pentagon claims it is an invasion of the privacy of the families of those dead soldiers. This from an administration that passed the Patriot Act, the most privacy-invasive piece of legislation ever passed in U.S. history. Who would believe that piece of spin? There is nothing that would identify the remains in those boxes, so how could it be invading anyone's privacy?

John Moline, a deputy undersecretary of defense said, "Quite frankly, we don't want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified." Anyone who viewed those pictures and saw the solemn, respectful handling accorded our war dead can quickly refute Mr. Moline's statement.

There is one reason and only one for hiding those returning bodies. Mr. Moline gave us the clue when he said he didn't want those deaths "to be the subject of any kind of attention". Actually seeing those flag-draped coffins filling the cargo bay of a transport plane instead of just hearing abstract numbers may cause some Americans to lose their stomach for war.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is quoted as saying the war in Iraq is "worth the risk" and "worth the cost" at the war's first anniversary. In a "Meet the Press" interview George W. Bush told host Tim Russert that the war in Iraq was worth the loss of US troops. The American people however are not permitted to see the loss. Casualty numbers are released, but we are not allowed to see that those numbers are, in reality, young people being returned in aluminum boxes to families who loved them. We are told the cost of the war is worth the loss but we aren't being allowed to see the bill.

As their coffins are carried on the shoulders of their comrades, our shoulders must carry some of the blame for the loss of those lives, so full of courage, so full of idealism and sense of duty, and so very young. As a nation, we must keep watch as they are brought home because they are the true cost of war. We owe them that honor, we owe them that respect and we owe them an apology for supporting an unnecessary war.

4-26-04