Since Saturday, 4 US soldiers have died in Iraq and a fifth has been injured. And it's a sign of both how much is going on in Iraq currently and how little most US outlets are paying attention to Iraq. Three, four years ago, could you imagine the US military announcing 4 deaths in one week -- 3 in one day -- and picture it receiving so little attention?
For those US outlets that do report from Iraq -- Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Newspapers, CNN and AP -- they've covered that and a great deal more this week. But in 2006 or 2007, could you really imagine four deaths meaning so little to the bulk of the press? Four deaths being so ignored?
Did you see an editorial by The Nation? No. You didn't see anything at their website acknowledging the deaths. Did you see anything from The Progressive? Hell no. Now 3 of the US soldiers died in Iraq on Saturday and were reported on Saturday. Matthew Rothschild wrote frequently this week including 'about war'. But apparently Matthew was so busy "watching the great Green Bay Packers game Saturday night" that he missed the news? Or maybe it's just that telling the truth wouldn't allow him to write dopey crap like "Bush’s war in Iraq and Obama’s war in Afghanistan". Yeah, he might actually have to face how many US service members have died in Iraq since Barack "WE WANT TO END THE WAR! AND WE WANT TO END IT NOW!" Obama was sworn in.
People should not waste their money on the useless outlets than cannot even bother to acknowledge death. And for someone who asks, "What about Iraqi deaths?"-- ask them, don't ask me. We acknowledge all the reported Iraqi deaths we can come across. They don't and they've made that clear in 2009 and 2010 as spectacular violence didn't result in editorials for The Nation or anything from The Progressive. So it's really clear that they don't give a damn about Iraqis. Miss the violence for a week and you can argue they were busy. Miss it for years? Ignore it for years? You just don't care.
If they cared they'd address it. But doing so wouldn't let them take part in the lie that Iraq War is over.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last week, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4435. Tonight it is [PDF format warning] 4439. And that's 18 deaths since 'combat operations' allegedly ended.
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