Editorial: Photographs of soldiers’ coffins must be allowed

The Pentagon released hundreds of photographs last week of
flag-draped coffins holding dead American soldiers killed in
President Bush’s war on terrorism. The images, taken by
military photographers, were released in response to a Freedom of
Information Act request filed by a University of Delaware professor
about a year ago.

Newspapers and magazines across the country wanted access to
such images since the war began in October 2001, but a policy
barring public photojournalists from taking similar images was
imposed by then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in 1991.

Despite the fact that the government should have made the photos
available immediately and without them being doctored (many of the
faces of soldiers carrying the coffins have been blacked out), it
is irresponsible for the Pentagon to bar photojournalists from
taking pictures of the war’s dead.

Death, the ultimate sacrifice U.S. troops are asked to give
their country, is a reality of war that should not be hidden from
the public.

While working in Kuwait in April 2004, civilian contract
employee Tami Silicio took a photo of coffins being loaded onto
planes for the U.S. Silicio made the photos available to newspapers
and the public and was promptly fired.

So far nearly 1,600 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and there is
no sign the killings are going to stop. Gunfire, car bombs and land
mines threaten the lives of these brave men and women every day,
and the U.S. government is only lying to the public by restricting
photojournalists from documenting the totality of these
realities.

The War on Terrorismâ„¢ is already a phantom ““ we
don’t know who the terrorists are that we are fighting or
searching for, where they are hiding, or how to actually go about
making sure there is never another terrorist attack on U.S. soil
again. The war shouldn’t be a phantom ““ and the victims
shouldn’t be either.

To view the images released by the Pentagon, visit
http://ragno.imag.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB152/casket_exhibit.html.
To view the faces of the nearly 1,600 fallen, visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm.