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Obama Dover Air Force Base Visit, Photo Op or Tribute?

by Sudha Krishna | October 30, 2009 at 01:32 pm

1162 views | 37 Recommendations | 5 comments

President Barack Obama's visit to the Dover Air Force Base to visit grieving families and witness the arrival of the caskets of fallen US soldiers in Afghanistan illustrates the an inevitable Catch-22 for politicians.

Don't attend such ceremonies and you are accused, of being indifferent to grieving military families, attend the ceremonies and you are accused of capitalizing on grieving military families.

Right now a storm of sorts is raging on sites like Twitter - with the Right accusing of Obama of "ghoulish loitering", while the Left says he was doing what a President should do - pay his respects, displaying common human decency, and so the debate spirals out of control.

Here is what all the commotion is about

Yes, Obama did travel to Dover Air Force base to meet greiving families of 18 dead soldiers. President Obama did have the White House Press Corps along with him (as they usually are).

The Right is making a big fuss saying President Bush only conducted "private visits" with families.

The Left points to President Reagan visiting the families of marines killed in Lebanon over 25 years ago.

The Right says 17 of the 18 families denies Obama an photo op - still trying to find a credible source on that one besides an accusation from Liz Cheney

Here is what Obama had to say about the experience at Dover Air Force Base

"It was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day, not only our troops but their families as well,"

Obama is expected to make a decsion on send upto 40,000 more troops in the days or weeks to come.

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A. Tran

at 10:36 on October 31st, 2009

There is nothing wrong or political with President Obama paying respect to the fallen Americans. The same can be said when former President Bush paid respect to grieving families of the fallen soldiers.

Albert Milliron

at 14:32 on October 30th, 2009

The issue that the families did not want to be photographed is probably erroneous. Pres Obama told the Press corp that they would not be allowed in during his visit with families beforehand. How do I know? The Major Garrett twitted the Presidents statements before they got to Dover.

Hugh Askew

at 18:17 on October 31st, 2009

He is the Commander in Chief. Why, is a visit to pay respects to his dead soldiers, a cause for criticism? Like him or no, CIC is still his rank, his responsiblity.

Albert Milliron

at 14:28 on October 30th, 2009

My understanding is that there was to be no photos of the event. The only one that was supposed to videograph was the WH photographer. Now I see these photos and video. Maybe the WH meant that his meeting with the families was not going to be documented.

I think it was good for him to go and see for himself the grief of the families

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 19:13 on October 30th, 2009

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. In Canada the PM Chief of Defence Staff and Defence Minister meet every flight whenever their schedule permits it. Media is permitted at the arrival site with the families permission.

The funeral is televised a lot of time nationally as well.