The Common Ills: Pretending the Iraq War ended certainly limits one understanding its true costs

Saturday, April 07, 2018

Pretending the Iraq War ended certainly limits one understanding its true costs

THE DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL notes, "In operations related to Iraq, a total of 4,544 members of the U.S. military have died. Another 32,317 U.S. service personnel have been wounded in action." The Iraq War continues.

Today, the US Defense Dept announced:

Strikes in Iraq

Yesterday in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Qaim. The strike destroyed an ISIS supply route.

On April 4, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Baghdad. The strike destroyed an ISIS cave.

There were no reported strikes in Iraq on April 3.

On April 2, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

-- A strike was conducted near Qayyarah.

On April 1, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Beiji. The strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS-held building.

On March 31, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of one engagement against ISIS targets near Rutbah. The strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS vehicle.

There were no reported strikes in Iraq on March 30.

The Iraq War continues.

Last month, we noted the poll that found 43% of respondents felt the Iraq War was 'worth it.' CJ Werleman has stumbled upon the poll at MIDDLE EAST EYE and wants you to know this is the result of movies and educators.

The typical b.s. that people blame that has nothing to do with anything.

You're never going to get a losing war taught well in public education. That's reality.

Also reality, more people see an episode of a middling TV show than see you're basic 'hit' movie. Movie tickets cost money. Broadcast TV is free.

This is a cute little fancy where everyone's responsible except for the people responsible.

The people responsible for that poll?

That would be the news media and, yes, the American people.

The news media for long ago burying the Iraq War -- they withdrew at the end of 2008. The American people for allowing that to happen.

As such -- and this has nothing to do with a film or with school -- the Iraq War appears to have ended when Barack Obama was elected to his first term.

A lie the media wanted to ensure they had their Camelot moment that they can spend the rest of their lifetime measuring everything else as coming up short when compared.

It wasn't Camelot. It wasn't even Spamlot. It was a period of robber barons and War Crimes and Barack presided over it. Not all the hagiography in the world will ever paper over that.

By refusing to acknowledge the ongoing Iraq War, the American media and the American people have wrongly put an end to the costs of war. But the costs continue just like the war.

When you pretend that the costs have ended and/or the war, you will get false results in polling. But neither have ended and it's a real shame that Ava and I can note that reality over and over at THIRD but no one else wants to belly up to the bar and put their own money down. From Ava and my most recent piece:

Take the pretense that the US media gives a damn about the Iraq War. It doesn't. Where are the guests calling for the end of the Iraq War? Where are the reports from Basra and Baghdad?

As we noted last week in "TV: 60 MINUTES of gossip," the media couldn't even be bothered with covering the 15th anniversary of the Iraq War.

If you didn't get how bad it was, Saturday saw the funeral for one of the seven service members killed in Iraq in a helicopter crash in March. The British press could carry stories -- and did -- about the funeral of Christopher Raguso and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio could attend the funeral but the NYC press was largely unable to cover it?

We find it interesting and telling that NYC's NBC and CBS stations elected to 'cover' the funeral by running AP stories. We get it, we do. It's 51 miles to travel from NYC to Long Island, you gotta go clear down I-495, it's just too much trouble and expense for the purveyors of nothingness. They chatter, they babble, they just don't reflect the world around us.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: