Let the Coffins Be Seen

The ban on media at Dover Air Force Base when America’s war dead come home ignores the very rights they died fighting for, and it should be lifted, Connie Schultz writes for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Supporters of the Iraq war have long argued that media images of the fallen are nothing more than political statements,” Schultz writes. But "suppressing these images is the more blatant political ploy.”

Schultz notes that the ban, instituted by the first President Bush, “was especially handy for his son after it became excruciatingly clear that, despite brays to the contrary, his mission was far from accomplished in Iraq.” Instead of manipulating the media for political purposes, the US should honor the freedom its service members fight for. “Why not trust the American people to make up their own minds about the meaning of those flag-draped coffins?” (More Dover Air Force Base stories.)