Bringing them home.

This is the saddest thing that has pleased me to my core in a very long time.

President George H. W. Bush placed a ban on media coverage of the return of bodies of American troops 18 years ago and through that time, including six long years of war in Iraq, it has remained. President Barack H. Obama has lifted it, and in the name of truth and an informed democracy that should honor the sacrifice of its soldiers while it questions the manner in and the reason for which they died, this journalist is thankful.

It's up to the families to make the return public or not. It should of course, necessarily, be respectful coverage. But the bottom line is that the deaths of these people deserve the light of day.

Comments

[Daniel]

I absolutely agree. As a journalist myself, I believe it is the media's right to know and communicate this information under the Constitution. Of course it should be respectful coverage (and I expect that, for fear of a PR nightmare, networks will handle it with care), but it is important that the public have access to this information.

However, it is also good to see the other side of the case. You can see arguments both for and against the ban across the web, but I found http://www.newsy.com/videos/covering_fallen_u_s_soldiers/ to be especially helpful in boiling down the two sides to their essentials.

[Laurie]

Thanks for your comment. I don't agree that that one video story boiled it down though - or that it needs to be to reach the conclusion I have. There is choice now, and there ought to be choice. Before there wasn't any. Between choice to share or not and an outright ban, I'll always take choice. That's democracy, that's a free press, that's families being able to choose to share their loss (as a result of a controversial war) publicly if they choose.

Wondering (perhaps cynically, sorry) if you work for Newsy? Not a familiar site for me.

[Karen @ Planet Books]

I think this is a good thing as well. It shows the true results of war when things are still in unrest. It will help remind our nation and the world that war continues though the media does not focus on it as much as it used to. I long for the day when the caskets stop coming off the conveyor belts draped in the Star Spangled Banner but until then I don't want to forget that people are still making the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Most if not all bodies from Iraq and Afganistan are processed through the AFB in Dover, DE. There they dress each body in it's respective uniform of the branch of military and rank that person served in. Though the work is sad and disheartening, the airmen who have this responsibility say that it is the best and most honorable work they have done in their career and they hope that what ever they do do in their next post allows them to honor the troops in some way as well.

[Laura]

Now let's just hope that, when the families agree, the news channels show the pictures. These wars have become like white noise--we need to be made aware every day of how lives are lost and ruined.