I recently posted this in a forum debating whether or not to show images of the dead soldiers coming back from the war:
We need to be reminded that real people are dying. We need to put a face on the sacrifice. Those dead are not just faceless mercenaries volunteers whose fate is moot since they asked to be where they are. If someone visited America today and was not aware we are at war (I realize that there are Bush apologists who still do not recognize that this is war), they wouldn't know by observing us.
Honoring the dead is more than just comforting the friends and family. That is the primary reason, true. Yet there are times when death takes on deeper ramifications, as when someone dies for a cause.
I am not advocating a press feeding frenzy at the church and graveside. The military could have a single photographer from the press corps of the departed person's branch of service (as I believe they do now.) The regular press can then draw from the family-approved images for publication.
I am advocating making our war dead public is to ensure we are aware of the deaths so we can think and discuss amongst one another what these deaths mean and the situation that caused them.
How many Americans if asked right now could tell you roughly how many Americans have died (the fact that we keep no official record on the number of Iraqis killed is scandalous.)
There have been 2,600 coalition deaths, 2,391 Americans, two Australians, 104 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 26 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of April 25, 2006, according to a CNN count.
Publishing images of the dead reminds us that what we are doing involves deeper sacrifice than the cost of gas at the pump.