Pentagon obstructs Arlington funeral

[kskiska]

What the Family Would Let You See, the Pentagon Obstructs

By Dana Milbank

Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't want you to know that.

The family of 38-year-old Hall, who leaves behind two young daughters and two stepsons, gave their permission for the media to cover his Arlington burial -- a decision many grieving families make so that the nation will learn about their loved ones' sacrifice. But the military had other ideas, and they arranged the Marine's burial yesterday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the public domain.

That's a shame, because Hall's story is a moving reminder that the war in Iraq, forgotten by much of the nation, remains real and present for some. Among those unlikely to forget the war: 6-year-old Gladys and 3-year-old Tatianna. The rest of the nation, if it remembers Hall at all, will remember him as the 4,011th American service member to die in Iraq, give or take, and the 419th to be buried at Arlington. Gladys and Tatianna will remember him as Dad.

(snip)

"There will be a yellow rope in the face of the next of kin," protested one photographer with a large telephoto lens.

"This is the best shot you're going to get," a man from the cemetery replied.

"We're not going to be able to hear a thing," a reporter argued.

"Mm-hmm," an Arlington official answered.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042303244.html?hpid=artslot

[texastoast]

1. The war is the thing

Until we are out of it, we have little hope. I just wonder when America will say "enough."

[orleans]

2. enough!

(but our voices either don't count or we aren't loud enough)

[soothsayer]

3. They hate us for our freedoms.

[alfredo]

4. The war is a means to an end. The end is to drive this country into

bankruptcy then capitalize on the chaos that will accompany our collapse. The neo cons and Osama have the same plan for America.

[grilled onions]

5. Wasn't Viet Nam Different?

It seems to me(I wa a teen then) that the news had full coverage,plus body count, nearly every night. You saw battle,you saw faces. You saw draped boxes coming home.It was a horrible war,one that many are still fighting every day but it didn't seem to be the secretive war of today. Today we have one they created yet when it's time to face the music they turn the sound off;they block the cameras,like they are ashamed of the carnage they were responsible for. They love to show pics of daddy coming home--alive but not if he comes home in a box. That is truly disrespectful for the dead and the survivors. Why don't we hear complaints from the families of fallen soldiers???

[Usrename]

6. These assholes think that's why we lost Vietnam. Bad press.

They don't think our defeat there could have possibly had anything to do with our decision to use the napalm.

In fact, if anything, they probably think we didn't use enough of it, and that's why we lost. Monstrous, just like now.

[annabanana]

8. Exactly. They have always had a "PR" mindset. . facts be damned.

Like B*sh is always convinced everyone will "come around" when it's explained enough. (He thinks that about every single cockamaimie policy he's tried to throw around our necks..)

[Usrename]

9. It's been going on my whole life. These are some stupid people.

But it's just like Reagan convincing folks he was the first one to ever think up SDI. As if all the thought and negotiations that went into the ABM Treaty, and our whole policy of worldwide nuclear detente, never took place. The small men with no character and tiny brains have no idea how stupid they really are, or what giants went before them, do they? They have no idea, and they never will.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Anyone else having problems seeing this article? n/t