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May 29, 2004 I believe it is high time we decided just what’s going on. With news of Pat Tillman, the all- around hero of the United States and advanced Ranger being slain by friendly fire, I am left to wonder about the state of our War on Terrorism. I completely understand that friendly fire cannot be eliminated from battle, and the fog of war is often a fatal one for troops involved in a heavy firefight. My peeve here is pretending death does not happen in war. The amount of time the Bush Administration has invested in making sure Americans do not see – or hear – the cost of the War in Iraq, or the War on Terrorism in general. While we have our breakaway news anchors that devote time to listing all of the dead from the War in Iraq, it is largely stifled as to exactly what is going on. A smart Bush Administration, pardon the oxymoron, would have been the first to jump on to the reading of the war dead. They would have joined the nation in mourning, and through that appeared to care more for the dead than for the preservation of this “bloodless war” the Administration seems to be gunning for. They would have left the liberals nothing to rag them on. But that, in the most secretive administration since Richard Nixon as many have indeed said, was not the case. Instead, they lobbied to have the show not aired, and when pictures of caskets coming home from Iraq were splashed across newspapers and television screens, the photographer was fired and the White House asked for no more pictures to be shown. The White House refused to let the casket pictures out publicly because, as they said, it defied the privacy of the families. Now, as the caskets were wrapped in American flags and pictures taken from a distance, how am I supposed to tell that casket 7-A is Bob from Winnipeg? This runs a bit deeper than that. The Administration realizes the quagmire in Iraq was a bad decision. If they would simply come out and say this, the public would be more than willing to forgive, as we do to those who make mistakes and admit them. However, instead of admit that President Bush may be wrong; the Administration is doing its best to warp the facts in order to prove him right. Why ban the caskets from the media? Because it shows the American people exactly what the cost of war is. Ten caskets speak more for the anti- war movement than 100 positive progress reports do for the pro-war side. Why? Because, since Vietnam, the visual media has played a massive role in shaping public opinion on American foreign policy and conflict. “Vietnam” is a word the Administration would love to censor. It’s a thorn in their side on so many, many fronts. However, as they crack down on reading lists of war dead, on showing pictures of those who died so valiantly for the twisted cause of the Bush Administration, that word seems only to reverberate off the walls. Had President Bush served in a war, he would know that war dead are not taken lightly. Perhaps the next casket photographed will be his re-election attempt. ------------ About the author: Max Burns lives in Indianapolis and interns with the Indiana Democratic Party. He is the webmaster of The Foaming Liberal and author of the fantasy-fiction novel Alcardia. He is currently a junior at Lawrence North High School and is active in political clubs and associations. Email: MBurns_NS@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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