Originally posted by: unixfool
I too agree with KK.
It does sound like you pulled the title and topic summary from Uranus.
Anyways, if it weren't YOUR daughter or son in those coffins, why'd you want to see pics of flag-draped coffins?
If it were my son or daughter and people were able to just casually view the casket, I'd blow a fuse and write the president myself a nastygram. I think it's pretty much BS to want to be able to see what shouldn't really be seen, except by family members.
Do you make it a habit of just casually showing up to stranger's funerals? If so, you're a sick person. If not, then why are you so worried about what you can't normally see?
My dad did 30 years in the U.S. Army. I did 10 with the Army. I've 3 uncles that were in the same time I was, and all 3 combined culminate 60 years of service. My wife is still in with 15. It sounds like you've not spent time with or around military types. If your family had a rich military history, then maybe you'd understand WHY this policy is geared toward family members of the deceased. It's not an issue of hiding how many soldiers have died (not to me, at least) but its more of respecting those (and their families) who've made the ultimate sacrifice and ensured the right to free speech that you're so obsessed with exercising at the moment.
The moment that strangers are allowed, in the U.S., to view and make opinions of dead soldiers in their caskets is the time that I seriously consider changing my national affiliation. That's much worse than burning the American flag. A flag is just symbolic. It can be replaced...lives can't. When the nation becomes so callous about our soldiers that they demand viewing their coffins, its time to start thinking about moving.