Hiding the Dead

Thanks to a comment thread at Eschaton, I bring you this article from the Toronto Star.

Now, the Star is not the Globe & Mail (Canada's equivalent of the New York Times) and Torontonians often make fun of this paper. But can you even imagine one of our great "national" papers - say the NYT or the Washington Post - printing an article containing this?

"Americans have never seen any of the other 359 bodies returning from Iraq. Nor do they see the wounded cramming the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington or soldiers who say they are being treated inhumanely awaiting medical treatment at Fort Stewart, Ga.

In order to continue to sell an increasingly unpopular Iraqi invasion to the American people, President George W. Bush's administration sweeps the messy parts of war — the grieving families, the flag-draped coffins, the soldiers who have lost limbs — into a far corner of the nation's attic.

No television cameras are allowed at Dover.

Bush does not attend the funerals of soldiers who gave their lives in his war on terrorism."

No, our compassionate conservative commander-in-chief has no time to spare for the very soldiers who make his imperial aspirations possible. And he has made sure that Americans don't have their dinners interrupted by disturbing pictures of flag draped coffins being repatriated through Dover Air Force Base.

Here's my comment from the thread at Eschaton:

As a commander, I had the honor and sorrow of being the "Casualty Assistance Officer" to the wife of one of my pilots who died in an aircraft crash. While unusual for the commander to do this duty, it was at the request of the family, with whom I had a close relationship.

I can tell you that there is nothing more humbling than to help these families through their sorrow and through the endless red tape that any large organization like the Army has set up around events like this. My main point is that going through something like this provides a very different perspective on the things that we do (did) everyday in the military.

Everyone in the military has a certain, necessary facade of bravado, without which it would be too difficult to face the daily danger and boredom. Helping a weeping widow and children chose a casket and burial site for their fallen soldier can break through the most hardened facade.

Bush needs to attend these funerals; he needs to allow press coverage of the Dover arrivals so that Americans can see the sacrifice required of their young sons and daughters. It should be mandatory that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and all the rest be there to help carry the coffins and fold the flags and comfort those left behind by dint of their decisions.

It would do them good. It would do our military policy good. And there is the smallest possibility that it would get through their small, narrow minds and their hardened hearts.