Kristol: Americans Have Seen ‘Plenty Of Coffins’ From The Iraq War
Kristol: Americans Have Seen ‘Plenty Of Coffins’ From The Iraq War
Yesterday during a panel discussion hosted by the the IFC Media Project, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol got into a testy argument with columnist and author Pete Hamill over whether Americans are getting a realistic view of the Iraq war given the restrictions the U.S. government has placed on images related to the battlefield.
“Let them see what’s on the ground,” Hamill shouted at Kristol, adding, “Let them see a coffin!” An exasperated and slightly annoyed Kristol yelled back that Americans have seen “plenty of coffins,” calling Hamill’s claims “nonsense.” Watch it:
In fact, Americans haven’t seen “plenty of coffins” because it has been the Bush administration’s policy not to release photos of them to news organizations — a policy the conservative-led Senate backed in 2004. The Defense Department has released photos of dead U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but on rare occasions and only as the result of leaks and lawsuits. But the Pentagon still restricts journalists’ access to military funerals.
Kristol later argued that the release of the photos from Abu Ghraib serves as proof that the Bush administration “wasn’t impeding the flow of information from Iraq.” However, the Abu Ghraib story broke in the news media, not from the Bush administration (which tried to hide the story).
Last June, CBS News’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan echoed Hamill’s sentiments, lamenting that “no one really understands” what is happening in Iraq because of watered down media coverage. But maybe that’s what Kristol prefers so the results of the distaster he helped create can remain hidden.
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Facts get in the way of trying to revise history.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:43 amJust how can one see something that has NO coverage?
Billy-Bob Kristol; Draft-dodging, cowardly, chickenshit, chickenhawk asswhole!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:43 amIt’s a shame you’re not in one of them, Bill.
¶ AIO
November 19th, 2008 at 11:43 amI will be so glad when this a$$hat is a footnote.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:47 amBilly,
You are just projecting, since you live in one at night.
Silver crosses and wooden stakes. BOO!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:49 amCoffins are the least of it.
I have a picture of a Marine with his face completely caved in. Another of a soldier whose feet look like ground beef.
An Iraqi civilian with his brains spilling out on the street.
I saved them not for prurient or morbid interest but to remind myself of the human reality of war which the MSM has been prevent from showing and which it has also chosen itself not to show for fear of upsetting the American public.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:50 amBill Kristol, unsurprisingly, advocates the mushroom treatment of informing the American people: keep them in the dark and feed them plenty of bullshit.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:52 amIt’s not just the caskets, since the Surge began have you seen any real reporting from Iraq. (Green Zone doesn’t count)
That’s all the Surge really is – less reporting (which was inadequate anyway) and the Pentagon telling you how ‘good’ things are there.
That and a surge of more and more of your tax dollars to pay off those who used to shoot at us.
¶ AIO
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 amMaybe Bill meant that we have seen “plenty of coffins” because even one coffin is one too many for a war based on lies.
Nah — this is Bill Kristol we’re talking about. He’s just lamely defending the propaganda filters and catapults.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 amBill Kristol has as much credibility as W. He has become a laughing stock, one of those pundits that is invited onto talk shows to fill up the time. Please go away, Billy.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 amIn my year in Vietnam, I witnessed charred bodies from Huey crashes, stacks of coffins waiting to be shipped home, piles of arms and legs waiting to be incinerated and other things quite unpleasant.
Why can’t we see those things now, as they are just as real in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were in Vietnam.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 amSounds like a subject for Billy K’s next (and last?) NYT column.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:58 amBecause if Americans saw these things they might start to question why we are there and whether it is worth it or not.
bush only wanted you to see the glory…….
November 19th, 2008 at 11:59 amI would bet that Mr. Smirk has never been to Iraq, or to Afghanistan either. But he’s the “expert.” Perhaps he should go to gain a “realistic viewpoint” himself. I would suggest he go without hordes of soldiers risking their lives to protect his as well.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:59 amFecking chickenhawk scumbag. Gad – I loathe that moron.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pmupside; I know exactly where you’re coming from. I’ve been there too. After seeing war up close and personal, you NEVER want to see another.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:04 pmThe NYT has got to stop giving this idiot an aura of legitimacy. I can see them wanting to keep a token Republican around, but surely there are some better ones out there?
Not that I can actually think of any…
November 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pmYou all probably knew this, but I only recently found out that Bill Kristol was the chief of staff to Dan Quayle. Has this guy ever gotten ANYTHING right?
Seriously…
November 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pmEvery time I see a thread on kristol, limpballs, o’lilie and the other crazie’s I think TP is showing us just how many evil loud mouth wacko’s are out there…Time to igore these people and return them to the non relevent trash heap they crawled out of..Clearly none of them have ever served our country much less viseted the war zone’s that the worst president in our history created…..Blessings
November 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pmFred Says:
upside99 Says:
Why can’t we see those things now, as they are just as real in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were in Vietnam.
—
Because if Americans saw these things they might start to question why we are there and whether it is worth it or not.
bush only wanted you to see the glory…….
Only someone who has never been in combat and the terminally stupid, see glory in war.
Something I hope the new president elect will eventually address is the sad state of the 4th estate that has largely turned into nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the Republican neocon/PNAC ( fascist b@stard) agenda.
Hiding the horrid result of war only diminishes the service of the men an women that give all for the service of their country.
Republicans suport the troops…. my a$$.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pmWith all the (empty) rhetoric about accountability, one must wonder why Kristol(nacht), Kagan, Perle, et al. are ever before any microphone not in a courtroom.
(This has been another in the series – Why Does Billy Kristol Have a Job?)
November 19th, 2008 at 12:16 pmSomeone needs to throw all these chickenhawks in a plane and dump them in the mountians of Afghanistan without phones for calling for help.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:22 pmThe 3 edicts of W War:
November 19th, 2008 at 12:22 pmNo coffins
No war tax/no sacrifices by US civilians not related to US military personnel.
Go shopping, America!
upside99 Says:
Why can’t we see those things now, as they are just as real in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were in Vietnam.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 am
_______
Pff, that’s easy. If the American people were allowed to see what war actually looked like, we’d never go to war again. The entire military-industrial complex would collapse.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:22 pmWayne Says:
I agree…….it’s criminal really.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pmThe problem is: The Media. Time for a change. Bloody bill wouldn’t last 2 minutes doing the job of processing the dead bodys.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:30 pmThere are a couple of coffins that most of America would like to see….
….and guess who’s those would be….
November 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pmWayne Says:
Something I hope the new president elect will eventually address is the sad state of the 4th estate that has largely turned into nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the Republican neocon/PNAC ( fascist b@stard) agenda.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
_______
What could he do about that, exactly? I mean, there’s a reason freedom of the press was written into the very Constitution of our country the first time it was amended. A President can’t dictate the press how to cover the news. Apart from perhaps rewriting FCC regulations on corporate media monopolies, there’s very little Obama can do.
And if the press corps decides to reverse its neocon tendencies and begin giving the Obama administration the kind of passes they gave Bush in the first five years of his term, I certainly don’t expect Obama to say “hey now, stop being so nice to me. You really need to scrutinize my decisions more.” The man is a politician, after all.
The kind of change you and I want to see in our media is something that can only come when corporations no longer control the agenda. We the consumers have to force that change – nobody else will do it for us.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pmOut of sight, out of mind.
Tax cuts for the wealthy during a time of war. No sacrifice asked of the American people, only the families of the soldiers. No media coverage of the death and chaos we’ve created. No photos of returning caskets of dead soldiers.
I’d say Darth Cheney learned a lot while sitting out the Vietnam war. He learned that by wrapping the war up in an American flag and questioning anyones patriotism who opposed the war and not allowing media coverage of dead and wounded American soldiers and Iraqi citizens wounded would be important in getting the American people will to blindly go along with and support war.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pmBill Krystol is on a long list of those who should be drawn and quartered for getting us into war and cheerleading for war.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:47 pmMoney trumps peace
November 19th, 2008 at 12:47 pm–George W. Bush
hussein toasterhead Says:
The kind of change you and I want to see in our media is something that can only come when corporations no longer control the agenda. We the consumers have to force that change – nobody else will do it for us.
The merchants of hate, Limbaugh, Beck, O’Liely, etc that have already crossed the line, such as when Limbaugh called for riots at the DNC Convention is something that should be addressed by LAW.
Incitement to hate and break the law should not be excused as “Freedom of the Press”, just as “Freedom of Speech” does not cover yelling fire in a crowd, when there is no fire. And Propaganda such as was practiced by the collusion of the Bush Administration and the corporate media is already against the law, yet was ignored by the JD and Congress.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:55 pmGo to hell Billy Kristol ! Your lies don’t fly anymore , you should die of shame , you disgust me !
November 19th, 2008 at 1:03 pmDedicate yourself to the victims of your ideology , maybe God will forgive you .
Kristol is a war criminal PNAC fascist. Send him to the Hague with the administration for trial.
Anthrax Attacks = Inside Job
November 19th, 2008 at 1:13 pm911 = Inside Job
there’s a very simple solution when one of these lying scumbags make such a statement. ask for the citation.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pmBloody Billy Kristol is batting 1.000. He is still wrong about everything he lies about the Iraq fiasco he so dearly wanted and cherishes. What a freaking fool to have in the media everyday. They guy should get to spend some time dodging bullets before his life ends. People like him are the scum of the earth.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:24 pmOh…so that’s why when there was a billboard ad on display for a art gallery show of photos of soldiers from Iraq here in San Diego, nearly everyone who saw the one image on the billboard assumed the Marine was dead. Henceforth why a lot of people got all uncomfortable about this showing of “real” photos.
People like Bill Kristol treat the soldiers of Iraq like video game characters with infinite lives, no matter the carnage on screen. A soldier is just a brown bag that can be thrown away to jackasses like Bill.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:41 pmResponsible for American deaths count:
November 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pmWilliam Ayers – 0
Jeremiah Wright – 0
George W. Bush – 4201
I take it no one asked him to define “plenty” ?
My guess is that one is plenty in his mind. Therefore his statement was accurate.
See Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland (or it may have been Alice Through the Looking Glass) for an example of wordsmithing.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:19 pmKristol was thinking of the character Plenty O’Toole (played by Lana Wood) from “Diamonds are Forever” when he made that comment. We have to remember Republicans have to lie and fudge their way through these things, so he projected his viewings of a movie onto coffins.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:56 pmbush only wanted you to see the glory…….
Chiming in probably way too late today, but remember this?
“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”
“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/13/bush-envious-of-soldier_n_91455.html
November 19th, 2008 at 4:21 pm42 impeachcheneythenbush:
I remember when Shrub made that comment. My remark now, as then, is that if he really wants to be there, he is POTUS and should go there.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pmWill someone please please take kristol put him on some heavy duty meds and put hima padded room before he hurts himself or someone does it for him ( i would like that job )
the dems have no spine
November 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pmthe rethugs have no shame
the bush admin has no soul
Kristol is such a putz!!!!!!!!!!!
PS. Senator Russ Feingold for Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (replacing Biden)
November 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm