Fighting with photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, but the Pentagon doesn't want certain pictures to communicate even one word.\nTuesday, after hundreds of government photographs of flag-draped coffins returning to Dover Air Force Base were released, the Defense Department ordered that no more photographs be released.\nRuss Kick, a First Amendment advocate who runs the Web site www.thememoryhole.org, was given government photos by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act. He received 288 photos of war casualties and 73 photos of Columbia astronauts, although he did not specifically ask for photos of the astronauts.\n Perhaps someone should ask the officials at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, which authorized the release on an appeal after Dover denied Kick's request, if they expected 361 controversial photos to be given to someone who supposedly was going to sit on his hands.\nThe Pentagon has also made strides to ensure no journalists photograph at Dover, and it moved to fire a military contract worker after a photo of flag-draped coffins she took in Kuwait appeared on the front page of The Seattle Times.\nThe photography ban is not new. It began in 1991, when Vice President Cheney was Secretary of Defense and cited a need to protect the privacy of and respect for soldiers' families. \nThe current administration is defending the policy, but that is clearly a diversionary tactic. The caskets have no names on them. No bodies are visible. All appear entirely identical and in military tradition, somberly covered with the flag.\nPhotos of caskets returning home after the Vietnam War have been identified as possibly causing a shift in public opinion during that war. But the Vietnam War had gone on for many, many years. \nThe Pentagon is now afraid that the same effects will begin to perpetuate today.\nSadly, the government doesn't trust the American people with a war fought in their name and with their tax dollars. And it's a surprisingly telling sign that the government believes the American people will not understand the reality of war. The photos should be released, and others should be allowed to be taken. \nWhat is clearly at stake is the threat the photos will carry with them some political implications. Interestingly enough, the administration had no problem using images of firefighters removing a flag-draped stretcher from Ground Zero in a political advertisement when it stood to benefit, but it does have problems with the images which may have a negative political impact.\nThese photos are part of the story of the war in Iraq. President Bush cannot choose which photos are suitable for citizens. The administration believes the American people cannot be trusted with seeing these photos -- all the more reason to see them. Information will always find a way out, and it'll always find a way out quicker if someone doesn't want it to be known.