Sunday, May 02, 2004

I was just reminded of another issue about Iraq -- the question of whether the returning coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq should be photographed and published or otherwise shown in the U.S. media. I think that they should. Whether or not one agrees that the war in Iraq is justified, we have to know what the cost is (or, I would rather say, part of the cost is -- since many Iraqis have been killed and injured, either fighting against the U.S., as innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire between U.S./U.K. soldiers and insurgents, or as victims of terrorist attacks inside Iraq). I also think that it is a way to honor those who have died. I feel the same way about Ted Koppel's decision to read the names of all those killed in Iraq on Nightline Friday night. This honors those who died and gives names to them. The same is true for the Lehrer Report on PBS -- every night at the end of the news they broadcast the names of photographs of those who had died. If those of us who support the war cannot even stand to listen to the names or look at the faces of those who have died on our behalf, what does that make us?


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