Failing the fallen soldiers

By Libby

The NYT has an interesting piece this Memorial Day morning, on ignoring the war dead. David Carr is right in that we aren't doing our soldiers any favors by preventing the American public from witnessing the true costs of the war. I can see wanting to protect the families from seeing their loved ones dead faces on the morning news but this restriction surprised me.

Until last year, no permission was required to publish photographs of the wounded, but families had to be notified of the soldier’s injury first. Now, not only is permission required, but any image of casualties that shows a recognizable name or unit is off-limits. And memorials for the fallen in Iraq can no longer be shown, even when the unit in question invites coverage.

I assume this means the impromptu memorials the soldiers hold on the field to honor their fallen comrades. I don't really see the point of this other than to miminize the public's awareness of just how many of these memorials are held. It seems to me to be rather disrespectful of the troops sacrifice to restrict it.

I've often seen returning soldiers quoted as expressing surprise and disappointment in how most Americans seem to be oblivious to the occupation. Well, this is why. When they have a president who urges them to carry on with their shopping and prevents them from seeing even the tributes to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, it keeps the conflict that much farther from their day to day existence.