General misstated the debate

While asking retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey about the president’s plan to draw down the troops in Iraq, Matt Lauer segued Friday morning into another military question du jour, the lifting of the ban on photographing the coffins of returning casualties.

For those not following closely at home, the Pentagon has long banned pictures and videos of the flag-draped coffins coming off the planes at Dover Air Force Base, which is, for most fallen service members, their first American stop on the final journey home. A cynical person might say that the Pentagon, or the previous Administration, didn’t want the public to be reminded of the true cost of the war. The official response, however, was always that it was to preserve the dignity of the soldiers and the privacy of the family.

McCaffrey’s answer pretty much blew the official answer out of the water, as well as misstated the whole debate.