Tami Silicio

this is a sample of what we saw each night from vietnam. such imahes from the gulf are now censored

[Griff]

Originally posted by jaguar
The right picture can change the course of public opinion, this administration is scared of that happening.

Unfortunately, the Democrats have thrown away the war as an issue by embracing Kerry, although Dennis K. hasn't dropped out yet.

[Elspode]

This kind of control has been going on since Day 1 in the most recent Iraq war. The "embedding" is done so that *we* can control the press, instead of them controlling us with what they report.

I watched a lot of the stuff from the embedded personnel at the beginning of the war. You almost exclusively saw us kicking ass.

Now that we are down to urban street fighting, and losing dozens per week, where are the images? On Al Jazeerah, unfortunately.

I know war is bad, but I resent having the images withheld just so the polls won't skew too far against a sitting President. We're a free country, so let's have some free information. The argument about being sensitive to the families, in my opinion, is a nice idea, but somewhat spurious. After all, it isn't like the name of the contents is emblazoned across the coffin. They're generic, all alike, the same way our government and military views the contents. They are only dear to someone once the container reaches its destination.

If there was positive political hay to be made over these coffins, you can bet your ass that GW, Kerry and anyone else who was looking for a boost would be parading these boxes down Main Street on a caisson with a brass band playing and the local minister shouting that God was on our side.

By the way when I mentioned watching footage of the Vietnam conflict when my Dad was over there, I was not trying to say that pictures of wars be censored out of respect for families. There should be a little decency about it (oxymoron, I know), and not show close ups of the faces of the dead, but other than that, the films should be shown. The American public got at least some inkling of the savagery of the Vietnam conflict, and I, personally, got to have a hell of a lot of respect for the heroism of my father going thru the nightmares that were revealed on the evening news.