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Ask A Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/28/2009 10:52:40

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,232nd day in Iraq.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4278
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4139
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3817
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3419
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 50

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 679
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 455
Journalists - Iraq: 139
Contractor Deaths - Iraq: 1264


We find this morning's overall cost of war passing through:

$ 850, 879, 575, 000 .00




Turning to our friends at IAVA, we find that Paul Rieckhoff has been busy; he recently made a presentation to the National Strategy Forum about our returning vets.

We've spent the past few years railing against the war and calling for our soldiers to come home. But it's not as easy as shutting down our bases and loading everyone onto a C-5 for the flight back to Westover ARB. There's thousands of regular-army troops that will simply go back to their bases in Germany and elsewhere and continue on with their military careers. But there's thousands more that put there personal lives and careers on hold for the United States....and in the ensuing months that they've been in the sandbox, the jobs they left behind have gone away.


Today, IAVA Executive Director and Founder Paul Rieckhoff gave a lecture at the National Strategy Forum in Chicago entitled "Protecting Those Who Serve: A National Security Strategy for Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan." Ahead of the troop drawdown in Iraq, Rieckhoff addressed how the U.S. government and local communities can play a role in ensuring the health, reintegration, and well-being of veterans and their families.


There's a couple of links to the conference and a White Paper on the subject over at IAVA: do go and check the link.


There are, of course, those soldiers that return in silence, draped with a US Flag. For years and years the previous administrations have banned the media from covering return ceremonies for those killed in action. President Obama recently reversed that policy, and the media is now allowed to cover the solemn rite (with family permission) as our war dead return to Dover AFB. But except for the first one after the ban was lifted, it's still not news.


DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware - It was Marine Corporal William C. Comstock's final homecoming: His remains, secured in a flag-draped "transfer case" in the rear of the cargo plane, arrived on the nearly deserted runway.

The 21-year-old supply technician from Van Buren, Ark., who died in Iraq, was met in the chilly darkness by a highly choreographed ritual. With a chaplain's prayer, and the exacting movements of an honor guard, Comstock's body was gently placed in a white truck, saluted, and driven to the mortuary.

It was the eighth arrival of a fallen service member from Iraq or Afghanistan open to media coverage under the Obama administration's new policy that permits reporters to attend if the families approve - a policy carefully constructed after pressure from First Amendment advocates and the opposition of some veterans' groups.

But Comstock's arrival almost wasn't covered. A single reporter showed up Wednesday night, along with a photographer from the Associated Press, which has recorded each ceremony on behalf of its newspaper clients around the country.

At the first arrival ceremony approved for coverage - on April 5 - 35 media outlets were on hand. Attendance has waned considerably since: The second one had 17 media representatives, according to the Air Force, and the last few have had a handful in total.

"There was some deep concern that we would have a desire for several hundred media to be there originally and we were concerned that we were going to have to say we can't accommodate [them]," Colonel Robert Edmondson, commander of the Mortuary Affairs Operations Center, said in an interview. "We were surprised that there wasn't more of a huge outpouring."

The lack of interest, however, may say more about the nation than the media. After years in which the Bush administration worried that images of returning casualties would traumatize the public, the images from Dover have had little emotional impact.

"Putting pictures of dead soldiers on the front page doesn't sell newspapers," said Ralph Begleiter, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware who sued the Defense Department in 2005 to lift the ban on media coverage, which dated from the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "When war news comes on television the ratings go down. Is it any surprise that the media chooses not to publish these events?"

Comstock's family, who could not be reached for comment, did not attend the return ceremony. His father told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Comstock was killed by an accidental weapons discharge. The Pentagon will only say that he died in a "non-hostile incident" in Anbar Province and is investigating.

There are practical limitations to more robust media coverage. The cost-cutting media has limited resources, and the Air Force can usually provide less than a half-day's notice before a casualty arrives - making it difficult for all but nearby journalists and the national media a few hours' drive away in Washington or New York to make it.



Returning dead may not sell newspapers, but as long as the media refuses to cover it, it's all too easy to sweep it under the rug and pretend that US soldiers aren't fighting and dying for what is still a lie.



 

37 comments (Latest Comment: 04/29/2009 03:15:58 by Will in Chicago)
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