Tuesday 3 March 2009
An end or a return to the Dover Principle?
I was very impressed to read that President Obama is to lift the ban on photographs taken at the Dover airbase of the bodies of American servicemen returning from overseas. Banned by George W. Bush because he feared the negative publicity that such images might generate, it has quite rightly been seen as an insult to those who have died in the service of their country. Obama's change is to be applauded. However, it remains to be seen if the increasing number of casualties in Afghanistan, which will inevitably result from the increase of American troops in the country, will see the return of the so-called "Dover Principle" - the more bodies that are seen returning, the less support for stationing troops abroad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Maybe the American society is more likely to accept deaths in Afghanistan than in Iraq. In that sense, by taking his soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan, Obama is doing what his society wants him to do. This may give him a couple of years of peace with them. However, if Afghanistan`s situation don't start to improve during these years, the number of casualties will become a serious problem for him.
ReplyDelete