In Pyongyang, you will never see any cripples — no wheelchairs, no crutches, no mentally ill. If you don’t look fit enough, you’re shipped out to God knows where. It’s all part of the looney government’s attempts to keep the capital and its inhabitants looking good for when visitors drop by. (I no longer have the link to the story about this policy; it was corroborated by my former Beijing co-worker who spent some time in Pyongyang a few years back.)

This type of engineering your society so that it looks a certain way and, of course, engineering the media so they only show nice things, is key to the North Korean mentality (Beijing’s too, though not quite so drastic). So when I first read these lines from the Washington Post, I had to wonder whether some of Dear Leader’s methodology was wearing off on our Dear President:

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers’ homecomings on all military bases.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. “There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops,” the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains.

Apparently the policy is nothing new, but it’s only this administration that’s embraced it. Back during our little war in Afghanistan, Bush ignored the policy. Now, during an operation that faces a lot more cynicism, criticism and skepticism, it’s in full force.

It is a sign, I think, of how Bush wants to “package” the war in Iraq, and a sign of his insecurity about the whole thing. It’s a branding technique that tells its audience (us) that this war is high-tech and antiseptic; we’ll show you the dazzle, but not the consequences, not the ugly underside, not the grief. (And no, it’s not anywhere near the level of what goes on in North Korea, but it did remind me of NK’s attempting to create its own “reality.”)

Call it what you will, it is still an attempt at mass manipulation and propaganda that should be unacceptable in America.

Update: This is a link to the NK’s policy on the handicapped Scroll down to Public Executions, then 7 grafs down.