Flag-Draped Coffins

One of the few good things to come of the pictures published in a Washington-state paper, taken by a military contractor (who has since been fired along with her husband), of the flag-draped coffins of military personnel coming back from the war is that at least for some, it confirms the idea what war often means death. Too few people, untouched by loved ones in the military, seem astoundingly insulated from this fact.

Another "good" thing, however, is a discussion. Should we be insulated from the images of the war's dead when they went to fight for us? In a representational Democracy, we charge our elected officials with making the decision to go to war, but that doesn't remove us from responsibility to those who die as a result.