White House bans news of coffins returning from Iraq
Last Wednesday, the Washington Post published the news that the Bush administration has ordered the Pentagon banning all news reports about the coffins returning from Iraq. With this "blackout", the White House tries to pass off the nightmare of Iraq as a fairy dream.
The Post's correspondent covering the White House, Dana Milbank, he writes: "Since the Vietnam War, all presidents have feared that its military actions cost them their popularity if the public comes to see the coffins wrapped in the flag - -of the dead soldiers arriving at military bases. But the Bush administration has found a simple solution to this problem: it has banned the press covers and photographs, all military bases, the arrival of the coffins of soldiers killed in combat.
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There was a time, after the Vietnam War, as the arrival of the remains of any member of the armed forces killed in the United States abroad was a solemn occasion hosted by the State. The trauma caused to Vietnam, along with the disappearance of more than 58,000 soldiers, forced the cancellation of the practice that prevailed during that war, in practice that the phrase "sent to his country in a plastic bag" made it clear that the indifference United States government tried to troops on the battlefield.
That was the reason why the president Jimmy Carter attended a memorial ceremony held at the Dover Air Force Base, State of Delaware, which had become the largest home of the military mortuary, where the bodies came from persons who died as a result of the failed rescue of the hostages in Iran. Reagan placed medals on the coffins of sailors who had died of war in El Salvador, and also attended the commemorative ceremonies of the 241 sailors who lost their lives in the bombing of the barracks in Beirut. George Bush Sr. was also a tribute to soldiers killed in Panama and Lebanon while complicated ceremonies were planned to receive the coffins arriving at Dover, in the Andrews air base, state of Maryland, Ramstein, Germany, and in several others.
The military command and government of United States never have questioned the impact that these images. Army Gen. Henry Shelton, former chief of staff, once remarked in 1999 that all interventions by the U.S. military would have to pass the "Dover test" that is, the public reaction to photographs and news about coffins down the military transport aircraft.
The government decided today that simply will not try to pass this "test". Rather, it mocks the press is focused on the killings and injuries suffered by U.S. military personnel in attacks by the forces of resistance that occurs with an average of 25 times a day, not to say the killings and physical harm to Iraqi civilians suffer the same. The government now insists that television news focus on successes such as the new currency designed by United States.
Overwhelmingly, the media, which belong to big business, has obeyed the order. The attention that the press now gives the missing soldiers, the funeral and the suffering of the families who lost their loved ones is minimal.
Bush has used carrier and masses of soldiers and sailors as wallpaper to decorate your pictures propagandists, but has treated soldiers in Iraq with contempt. At the White House has never seen a president deal with such indifference to the disappearance of men and women in uniform of United States. The number of deaths and close to 3250, but Bush still has not attended a single funeral or memorial reunion.
To be convinced by their own propaganda, that the Iraqi people would receive the occupation forces of United States as "liberators," the government has failed to adequately equip or deploy military forces in the country in an increasingly hostile environment. At the same time, the soldiers, men and women, living in horrible conditions, in large part because support services were sold to companies with good political relations, companies that once acknowledged that Iraq was still a combat zone, is refused to provide the services promised.
The treatment of soldiers who have suffered physical injuries in Iraq is a scandal. Those who have been discharged by the military hospitals, in many cases those who have become disabled for life, have found that these hospitals are charging them for food. These soldiers have been left shocked and angry.
Fort Stewart in Georgia state, where Bush appeared after the invasion and used to the troops returning from Iraq as utility plays, he is quick to deny medical services to approximately 600 reservists who have suffered physical harm. Living in disastrous conditions in cement huts built during the Second World War. Lack running water and air conditioning. The wounded soldiers are forced to walk 30 yards, many of them supported by crutches, to a community filled with toilet bugs. Have been forced to buy their own toilet paper.
According to an article published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper last Wednesday, about 400 of the recruits it to the press revealed the conditions under which they live. Superiors ordered them to form a row on Tuesday morning and severely blamed. Sergeant Dennis Stewart, who is a firefighter in the city of Terre Haute, Indiana State, told the newspaper: "We were told we were going to clean up more to work harder, and keep the peaks closed. "
Who are these soldiers to whom the President and his administration treated so badly? The vast majority are of the working class. In many cases joined the military because they needed money for their employment or education.
The specialist Simeon Hunt, 23 years of age and a resident of the city of Orange in New Jersey, was shot dead on October 1. October, while patrolling in Al Khadra. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and a half years old and a son who never came to see. "Hunte attended Montclair State University but did not graduate. He joined the army to get financial aid with which to achieve its objectives", according to the press about his disappearance.
Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez, age 21, born in Monterrey, Mexico. Emigrated to United States when he was seven years old. Was preparing to apply for citizenship. It was out of the army. He was killed the first of October when the military convoy that was going on was shattered by an explosive and grenades launched tiracohetes. He attended Houston Community College in Texas, but he joined the army to his parents did not have to sacrifice much to pay tuition. He said his father: "I always cared more for us than herself."
Sergeant David Travis Friedrich, 26 years old, resident of the town of Naugatuck in the state of Connecticut, was killed on September 21 in a mortar attack against their military base near Baghdad. His mother had been pointed out in the reserves and to raise money to pay for their post-graduate studies at the University of New Haven. He also had a full time job in a factory before the call to active duty.
Ryan Carlock, 25-year-old from the town of Colchester, State of Illinois, died in battle north of Baghdad on September 29. He joined the army three years ago to earn a living and be able to support his wife and two children, and to receive training in any field to get better jobs. He said his stepfather "was trying to decide what would be his next move: stay [as a soldier] or attend college."
There is one common thread that binds the biographies of the great majority of those who have lost their lives in the Iraq war and occupation of it: the struggle and sacrifice to a market that offers fewer and fewer jobs and where the cost of college tuition has risen out of control. Their lives do not compare to the President of the United States as a huge gulf separates. The fame and wealth of his family ensured that Bush was accepted as a student by the famous Yale University, where he graduated. And also ensures that escaped from compulsory military service and get all those well-paid jobs before reaching the presidency.
For Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, as well as for companies Halliburton, Bechtel, Chevron Texaco and ConocoPhillips, the lives of these young people can be easily sacrificed. It is as if the advance payment, in blood, by the enormous profits that be to seize the oil reserves of Iraq and the looting of the treasury of the United States through big contracts to the alleged "reconstruction" of the country.
For the American working people, the death of these young people is a terrible tragedy and human waste. These soldiers, like Americans in general were dragged into this illegal war by lying about the weapons for mass destruction and links Baghdad terrorist lies to cover up the predatory aims of the Bush administration. Have been forced to stay in Iraq seven months after the fall of the Hussein regime under conditions in which increased popular hostility towards what is actually the United States against colonialism of a defenseless country.
The Bush administration is famous for believing that the only thing that matters is the image of things and can practice any criminal policy that can always meet with the flag and that the press is sufficiently servile to hide the truth. While it may prevent the cameras filming the coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base, the bodies still in Iraq will continue to arrive for burial in the towns and cities from the state of New York to California.
As the wider population realize how unnecessary these disappearances and, moreover, they are the result of what can only be described as a criminal action, the people will inevitably begin to demand the United States withdraw all its troops from Iraq. Then remove the accounts that have been responsible for the needless deaths of Iraqis and Americans themselves.
