An Image Of Grief Returns

[rolling ball]

An Image Of Grief Returns

So what's everyone's take on the public display of war dead's coffin, should or should not?

[PhilM]

Politicians have a need to depict war as a noble cause in which the bad guys die and the good guys come home as heroes to convince people to fight their fights for them.

Young men and women have a tendency to believe they are invincible at that age – if anything bad happens it will happen to someone else not them.

Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children, other relatives and friends worry about their loved ones who have gone to war; but are constantly reassured by the Politicians that their loved ones are safe and will return home soon. They are told it is their Patriotic duty to support their loved ones during times of war; of course the politicians who caused the war in the first place are saying this from safety themselves.

When you show photographs of people’s loved ones coming home in body bags or coffins, or you show pictures of those maimed by war injuries you shatter all three of the above sets of illusions.

People realise the Politicians were not truthful this is not a noble cause it is a grubby war their relatives could die in.

Young Men and Women viewing the pictures and reading the report realise they are not invincible and could die or be maimed if they go and fight for the Politicians.

Relatives see through the Politicians bullsh1t and start to seriously question why their young people have been sent to war.

It was pictures of Americans coming home in body bags, coming home physically maimed, coming home mentally ill which first turned the American public against the Vietnam War; the same thing is just starting to happen with the Iraq invasion. I sincerely hope the media stops glamorising the war and instead start to report the reality of the futile loss of life and the prospects of those who are physically maimed or made mentally ill.

[Manc Man]

I think there is a need to respect the grief of the families and it is correct to try to avoid turning one of the worst moments in a families life into a photo op for USA Today.

On the other hand, hard to see how an individual families grief is impinged upon by showing shots of rows of anonymous draped coffins.

mm

[Dr Opinion]

Phil, the flip side is that sometimes war is necessary: even an apparently unprovoked war of interdiction might be necessary in the "big picture".

In this case, it's the Politicians duty to encourage support for the war.

Right?  

[Publius]

America is a democracy.

These pictures should be shown. Same for executions. People ought to know what their government is doing in their names.

The pictures of flag draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force base ought to be publicized.

[Darcy's Mum]

I wonder why this caused such a stir when the photo's of burned, mutilated bodies of contract workers hanging from a bridge published all over the world did not (to the same extent).  Even the Straight (sic) Times published.  Annonymous coffins - so what?!

[Dr Opinion]

> "...contract workers..."

No one official (to my knowledge) has had the gall yet to refer to those trigger-happy mercs as "contract workers".

The Bush newspeak terminology for these heroic and nobly opportunistic soldiers of entreprenurship (bravely bringing "freedom and democracy" at US$1000/day) would be "contractors".

While the full story will likely never be told, it seems unlikely that this large town went berzerk on these mercs out of an irrational hatred for food-convoy security guards.

The mercs operate outside the military chain of command, reporting to Bremer and/or the CIA.

It's worth noting that prior to this hot little job, Bremer's main claim to fame was advocating an amendment to the CIA operating rules enabling that prestigious organization to hire "contractors" with criminal records and a history of human rights abuses.  

[Darcy's Mum]

Oh, they got what they deserved! So it is ok for us to be bombarded with the image of their brutalised remains.

Generally, politically, conspiritorially, I don't entirely disagree with you but, nuh, still not right...........  give me a picture of a flag draped coffin any day.

[Dr Opinion]

Granted.  

[rolling ball]

I think that the govt just don't want a visual representation of the number of war deads, which would inflame anti war sentiments.

I don't see any problems with showing coffin with flag on it. If there's a picture of the person on top the coffin, then it would be at the discretion of the family.

If I were them, I would insist that my coffin and  with a picture on top be shown in newspapers, saying LOOK AT ME, FOR WHATEVER REASON THEY SENT ME TO WAR, I DIE FOR MY COUNTRY AND I WILL LET NO ONE HIDE ME INTO HISTORY.
It will shame people if they sent me to war for the wrong reason or remind them that war is grim if their reason is good.

[PhilM]

Having a member of your family or a friend return in a coffin is traumatic, having them return seriously physically or mentally impaired is equally as bad.

It seems for some war veterans who are permanently hospitalised after fighting in US actions abroad suffering does not stop on their return to the USA. The attached article shows how medical researchers have systematically abused these war veterans’ rights by using them as experimental cases without informing them of possible consequences.

http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/0403/13.html

[Manc Man]

Returning physically impaired is just as bad as returning dead ?

You are the *** resident drama queen........

mm

[PhilM]

Manc man - At times you are a real prat. Have you ever visited a psychiatric hospital and seen veterans who have to be physically restrained in beds or chairs by straps to prevent them from harming themselves? Have you seen men who will scream and become incontinent at the sound of loud bang? Have you ever visited a hospital and seen men who have been turned into paraplegics by war injuries and blinded into the bargain? Have you ever seen the torment of relatives who visit them, or worse still cannot bring themselves to visit because the pain of seeing them is too much? Sad to say there are veterans who survive in such a physical or mental state they may well have preferred to return home in a flag draped coffin.

Feel free to take the mickey out of me that is usually fine; however this time you chose the wrong thread and worse still insinuated the war injured are not as worty of consideration as those who died.

[Manc Man]

The more absurd your BS, the huffier you get when it is pointed out.

Ask any physically handicapped people you know if they believe they are the same as dead.....

(Once you've got your tiara back on straight of course).

mm

[Darcy's Mum]

MM

You have a point, but the state of mind of a physically challenged person (the PC term?!) asked the question you pose, will DEPEND very much on the circumstances of their handicap.  

Where they born that way?
Is it as a result of an injury from a leisure pursuit?
Did it happen as a result of their own negligence or lack of concern for their own safety and that of others?
Were they injured in a theatre of war, where they experienced unspeakable psychological trauma as well?

You'll get very different answers from all.  My mum is an orthopaedic specialist and spent years treating people injured in car wrecks & other 'accidents'.  She says most of them (not all) wish they were dead for the first couple of years and then they retreat into a defeated resignation of their new reality.  Some do have the mental wherewithall to rise above and move on with a productive, enjoyable life.

I personally know a handful of para/quads, all of whom have 'gotten on with life', but boy oh boy do they take a lot of drugs and a lot of risks - as though they had a death wish!