Will Obama Allow Americans to 'See the Full Human Cost of War?'

Posted by Satyam Khanna, Think Progress at 8:13 AM on February 10, 2009.

Since 1991, the media have been banned from covering the arrival of remains of military dead at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. Yesterday, noting that Vice President Biden has previously criticized this policy, CNN's Ed Henry asked President Obama a hard-hitting question on whether the administration will rescind this policy in the spirit of transparency:

HENRY: And back in 2004, then-Senator Joe Biden said that it was shameful for dead soldiers to be, quote, snuck back into the country under the cover of night. You've promised unprecedented transparency, openness in your government. Will you overturn that policy so the American people can see the full human cost of war?

Obama answered that "we are in the process of reviewing those policies in conversations with the Department of Defense." Watch it:

The question comes as four American soldiers and an interpreter were killed Monday in a suicide bombing in Mosul, Iraq.

Tagged as: obama, soldiers, heroes, department of defense, transparency, ed henry, dover air force base

Satyam Khanna is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.