Re: McCain Says Show the Coffins

Date: April 25, 2004

"Show photos of dead, Ariz. lawmakers say

McCain and Kolbe say Americans deserve to see who is making the ultimate sacrifice.

by C.T. REVERE Tucson Citizen

A policy supported by the White House and the Pentagon prohibiting public release of photographs of coffins of Americans killed in the war against terrorism is wrong, U.S. Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe said yesterday in Tucson.

McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent 5 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, said the policy risks repeating mistakes made nearly a century ago that played a role in the advent of World War II and the Cold War.

"The worst war in modern history was World War I, and the British, French and German people were never told what was going on as hundreds of thousands of men died in a single battle," McCain told reporters on the University of Arizona campus. "There was a huge backlash after that."

McCain said he has struggled over the merits of the White House position that releasing photographs of flag-draped coffins and dead soldiers on the battlefield is insensitive to the families of men and women in the military.

"I've come down trying to respect the privacy of the families and the sensitivity of the families, but I still believe those pictures need to be shown of the coffins returning," McCain said. "I think it's a way to honor them and a way we understand their service and their sacrifice."

Kolbe, who served as a Navy boat commander in Vietnam, agreed that the public has the right to see images coming out of the war.

"Americans need to have full information about what is happening," Kolbe said. "I would hope the media would use some good judgment about what kinds of pictures they show of bodies. Families need to have their sensitivities protected. But photos of battlefield casualties, I think those are newsworthy, and I do believe the news media should be allowed to show those."

Both Republican lawmakers paid tribute to former Arizona Cardinals football player Pat Tillman, who was killed yesterday while fighting al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

"We grieve over the deaths of all our young Americans who die in Iraq," McCain said. "But Pat Tillman represented what's finest in America because he left a very comfortable and rewarding lifestyle after 9/11 in the belief that he needed to fight for his country and fight his enemies, and that's how he left us."

© 2004 Tucson Citizen"