A Matter of Honor

--Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2,
Marcel Duchamps

Shapes of things before my eyes,
Just teach me to despise.
Will time make men more wise?
--Shapes of Things, The Yardbirds

If you can see, look.
If you can look, observe
--Blindness, Jose Saramago
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With George H. W. Bush's 1991 camera ban on military caskets partially lifted, we may feel like rights are being restored, but it is still provisional on obtaining the family's approval (Ban on Photos of War Dead to End).

The Spartan women gave injunctions to their soldiers -- come back carrying or on your shield. Americans hypocritically call their soldiers "warriors," yet when their bodies return we are afraid to see them on the metaphorical equivalent of their shield.

Anyway, as The Guardian suggests, any photos are unlikely to make it into the press.

"In January, Iraq accounted for only 1.25% of stories in the US, and it has completely disappeared from headlines this month, as the economy has come to dominate the news cycle (Photographing America's War Dead)."

"Reversing the ban is an easy way for Barack Obama to fulfill his commitment to transparency, score points with supporters. . . even as he quietly maintains other, more significant Bush-era terrorism policies like extraordinary rendition and the state secrets privilege."

The current rule still violates the First Amendment as photographers do not have full access to the photos. Seeking the family's release is a nod to the overarching power of attorneys in our highly litigious society. It is the penultimate hypocrisy that our civil rights are truncated vis-a-vis these soldiers who died to export democracy.

The continued isolation of these dead soldiers is a violation of the warrior's code. If we really believed the warrior rhetoric we would have mandatory formations to bury our dead. But we do not. They are warriors until they die, when they become an administrative embarrassment that must be kept from sight.

Our rights and their honor are being shuttered by hampering First Amendment access. If we really honored these soldiers, we would do everything in our power to keep them alive by keeping them out of endless, mindless wars.

Unfettered First Amendment access to photographers is one way to achieve this.

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Join Ranger on Blog Talk Radio tomorrow (3/5/09),
7 p.m. EST. The Program is "The Political Atlas"
phone: 347-215-8092
Topic: Obama's handling of the War on Terror

Submit thoughts to:
ranger@rangeragainstwar.com