Editorial: Don’t hide coffins from public view

Monday, April 26, 2004 | 8:50 a.m.

The Bush administration has refused to let the media take pictures of coffins carrying the remains of U.S. soldiers as they arrive back home in the United States from Iraq. Many Americans who opened their newspapers on Friday, then, likely were surprised to see photos of flag-draped coffins that had been taken at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The photo that the Las Vegas Sun ran on the front page showed the inside of a military cargo plane with 20 flag-draped coffins in neat rows being attended by troops paying their respects.

So how did the media get the photos if news organizations weren't allowed near Dover Air Force Base? Despite the Pentagon's ban on the media taking photos, the military had been taking pictures of coffins -- more than 350 of them -- for what it claimed were "historical" reasons. The operator of a Web site opposed to government secrecy had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any pictures that the Defense Department might have taken of the coffins, and someone lower on the chain of command approved their release. Once top officials discovered that the photos had been released, they said the decision was a mistake, but it was too late: The media already had the photos and had begun the public service of publishing them.

The Pentagon has said that its policy of banning the media from taking such photos, adopted during the first Iraq war in 1991, is to protect the fallen soldiers' grieving families. But journalists in Iraq are free to take photos during combat, including of wounded and dead Americans. Hometown newspapers and television stations cover the funerals of our dead soldiers, including showing the images of flag-draped coffins.

The true reason for the ban that prevents the media from taking photos in Dover? It's a political decision by the White House to not let the American voters see the powerful images of multiple flag-draped coffins. President Bush and his advisers don't want a string of coffins to create an indelible impression on the U.S. public during an election year. The Bush administration may be uncomfortable with the fact that more than 700 U.S. soldiers have died since the start of the Iraq war, but that's a reality that the White House -- and the American people -- should not turn their eyes away from. Photos of flag-draped coffins are an important part of the story of the war in Iraq and should be shown.