Iraq American Death Count: Public Largely Unaware

A new poll from the Pew Research Center finds a staggering drop in the public awareness about fatalities in Iraq:

Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had confirmed the deaths of 3,974 U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

In August 2007, 54% correctly identified the fatality level at that time (about 3,500 deaths). In previous polls going back to the spring of 2004, about half of respondents could correctly estimate the number of U.S. fatalities around the time of the survey.

(Note: the number of U.S. deaths confirmed by the Department of Defense is 3,974. Thirteen U.S. deaths are pending confirmation, for a total of 3,987).

By contrast, 84% of Americans knew that Oprah Winfrey was supporting Sen. Barack Obama for President.

The study also finds that over the same period of time, the media coverage dropped to only 3% of news:

The drop in awareness comes as press attention to the war has waned. According to the News Content Index conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the percentage of news stories devoted to the war has sharply declined since last year, dropping from an average of 15% of the newshole in July to just 3% in February.

Click here to read the entire poll.

Comments

[bluesjones63]

These are the same people who are expected to KNOW the following:
a. that Barack is NOT a Muslim,
b. that Hillary's EXPERIENCE is equal to that of Laura Bush's,
c. that GWB lied us into Iraq,
d. the history and complexities of our current PREEMPTIVE foreign policy,
e. the history and complexities of our current economic structure that has HELPED 2-3% of Americans over the past 15 years,

America is LUCKY (per Geraldine Ferraro) that average Americans are college graduates.

[IntelligentDesign]

The Iraq war is the war to shame all wars started by the president to shame all presidents - one more reason to not hand the presidency to either Hillary Clinton or John McCain as they both contributed in this crime against humanity and will not have the proper impetus to go after Bush administration officials for war crimes - Obama will champion that cause just fine.

Obama/Dodd

[williamscody]

What war crimes again?

[GarsLuber]

yet another reason why so many rightly refer to you and your kind as 'Chicken Hawks'

bok bok

[provgrays]

To go with Bush's wars, he throws in a recession, and possibly, a depression on the way out the door.

Chimpy didn't know that gas was headed for $4.00 a gallon and Daddy Bush didn't know what an supermarket scanner was. These idiots are dictatorial aristocrats.

To everyone who voted for this tyrant, thanks ever so much.

[nevergiveup]

william--are you really THAT stupid or just UNAWARE,

It's called going to war by lying to Congress and the American people for the reasons for War. All a big joke among you Rethugs. Why do Republicans hate their country so much?

[nellie]

Torture, lying about intelligence, just to name two.

[klmebane]

starting a war of aggression is a war crime... hitler did it, too.

[ME08]

It is a shame that we worry more about Governor's sleazy sexcapades, Britney Spears, whether Gerri Ferraro has a right to question Obama's fitness for office, and on and on...

It is a scandal that nearly 4000 men and women are dead, and we have a government trying to hide that fact as much as possible from the public...

[whimsicalpig]

it's sad that you really think he will make a difference if he gets in.

he does not have the support from any quarter in DC to do that and if he is promising it he should be held accountable when he fails.

[FatherOfAllLife]

oBOMB'em???
By stepping up the ILLEGAL WAR of AGGRE$$ION IN AFGHANISTAN?

THEN (if he EVER got that far-he won't) he'd have TRILLION$ of "reasons" (i.e. lame excuses) WHY they have to keep troops in Iraq.

oBOMB'em, hitlery, AND M C (ins)ain are ALL members of the CFR (nwo)
ALL members of the CFR are TRAITORS to the CONSTITUTION!

[GarsLuber]

More of Bush Boy's prized legacy:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_bi_ge/diving_dollar

[timothe]

Yeah...you should see how much the trade deficit has been cut due to the weak dollar. We are creating more goods sold overseas than ever before and people are buying more American goods compared to Chinese goods thanks to "Bush Boy's" prized legacy.

[GarsLuber]

that would be nice spin, if it were true.

[dartagnan]

Why don't you tell us about the high rate of home ownership, Timmy? Not too long ago the Repukes were pushing that as proof of the health of the Smirky economy.

This economy is a house of cards built on a foundation of sand but even as it crashes down around your ears you can't see it.

[acudoctor]

Yeah - you would figure all that extra export would translate to jobs...

[juangault]

He was hired by the big boys to bankrupt the country, and he may yet succeed. I need to catch up on how things went when the USSR fell. It'll probably spell the end of post WW2 prosperity. My evil suspicion is that Texas wants to be like Ukraine, an ex-state of the union.

[WLA]

I don't think dumbya has plans for staying in Texas, let alone the U.S.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/oct/23/mainsection.tomphillips

[hhkeller]

The actual count is probably 10 times higher.
The Bush administration is expert a cover up bad news and numbers.

Wink Wink " Only 5% unemplyment " Wink Wink

[Nommo]

As well as the troops, what about their families? Loss of a family member or the imposition of a financial burden, children without a parent or parents, loss of home and those kinds of things that are happening here. Why are we not looking after the families of those we send to die for a lie? 937 lies, for that matter.
I guess because the lie is circular, isn't it? Not to mention the work involved in keeping the lie going.

People of America, here is what you get judged on, and since we are all still very keen on this judging thing, the way you treat your own and now, you are found wanting.

[Tabasco]

"Iraq American Death Count: Public Largely Unaware"

And this is EXACTLY what the White House and most Congressional Republicans were hoping would happen. I'm sure they'll sleep better at night from now on.

So, while the media is in feeding frenzy mode over Spitzer's wet willie, dead and wounded keep getting hauled back from a open-ended disaster with an undefined 'victory'. Isn't that special?

Let's make sure the vast majority of Republicans are swept out of office in November. Evil f*ckers.

[maddog2112]

And lets stopp lettin ghtem claim this election is about the economy and not the war! That is a diservice to all who have died from all countries involved. Do not let the media tell us what we do and do not care about.

GOP policies kill our troops!

[peacekitten]

i know how many have died. the real number, not the "official count."


i have a pretty good idea of the number of wounded. again, the real number, not the "official count."


i also have a pretty good idea of how many dead iraqis there are as well. the real number, not the "official count."


what no one stops to think about is the number of dead souls inhabiting breathing bodies that return from this horror. or the aching, broken souls of the survivors of the dead, whose wounds will also never really heal.


i hope that this administration and every person who voted to let this happen will be haunted by the faces, the souls and the pain of these people forever. the only ones who might deserve to have that sentence mitigated are those who have been big enough as human beings to admit their mistake and work to try and fix it.


this should never have happened. it is an illegal war that the united states has violated every single treaty it ever signed in order to perpetrate. this administration has committed without apology the single greatest crime against humanity, and they have compounded it with the use of depleted uranium, which will continue to break hearts, destroy souls and deform bodies for billions of years to come. its half life is 4.5 billion years, and it destroys DNA, thus rendering its victims incapable of reproducing normally at the cellular level. perhaps the most effective act of genocide designed for complete extinction of a race of people ever perpetrated.


can there ever be justice for that? the only way we can begin to find justice is to insist that peace will prevail, the law will be upheld regarding the politicians' crimes, and they will serve out the longest, most harsh sentence that can be imposed upon them. to live to the end of their days haunted every minute of every day by the pain and suffering they have caused and to be victims of it themselves, after having been accorded due process of law, something else they have also denied countless innocents.


requiescat in pace for the dead.


mercy and peace for the souls and hearts of the living left behind, for their suffering has only just begun.

[timothe]

Peacekitten, I'm curious of your opinion about a question of mine because your post was very emotional and heartfelt.

"what no one stops to think about is the number of dead souls inhabiting breathing bodies that return from this horror. or the aching, broken souls of the survivors of the dead, whose wounds will also never really heal."

Do you think women who have an abortion end up like this as well? As broken souls who will never heal?

[peacekitten]

when huffington puts up an appropriate forum for your question, then i would consider engaging in a discussion of my thoughts on it.

this is not that forum, as far as i can tell.

in the course of a debate or discussion, it is customary to remain on topic. your question goes to an irrelevant tangent. not exactly the strongest of debating skills, to be honest.

perhaps you should watch the film "cheaters" again.

[williamscody]

You shame the millions of people who actually have been victims of genocide.

[riverhouse]

So, williamscody, do you call the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis on a neocon whim?

[klmebane]

thats all you have to say?? after everything the poster said you run to the corning of the room and point out something completely irrelevant to the topic? with a half life of 4.5 billion years it seems that uranium would constitute a form of genocide. if it is placed in a populated area it will render everyone near it sterile. they may not have been hacked to death with a machete, but they will just as surely not be able to reproduce. it may not be as horribly violent, and no one is trying to downplay genocides around the world, but to say that making an entire population unable to continue isn't genocide sounds a lot like troll logic to me...

[Mat8675]

And you shame your fellow Americans.

[GarsLuber]

are you referring to the million dead in Iraq from Bush Boy's Oil War?

Good point.

[BWonka]

And you are obviously ignorant about what is going on in Iraq - or are you just delusional?

[HippieChick]

People forget that eventually wars end; they must, because the strong human desire for a peaceful life eventually proves more powerful than the human passion for war. So if peace will eventually follow the destruction and death experienced through many years of war, why can't humans just cut to the part where the killing stops? My daughter brought me this poem yesterday evening, which reminded me that eventually this aggression must end.

The End and the Beginning
Wislawa Szymborska

After every war
someone must clean up.
No sort of orderliness
happens by itself.

Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the roads
so that the wagons full of corpses
can get through.

Someone has to wade through
the slime and ashes,
the couch springs,
the glass splinters
and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a beam
to support a wall,
someone must glaze a window
and hang the door on hinges.

This is not photogenic
and takes years.
All the cameras have already driven off
to another war.

The bridges have to be built again
and the station, too.
Sleeves will be in tatters
from being rolled up.
Someone with mop in hand
still remembers how it was.
Someone is listening,
nodding with a head not torn off.
But already people are
beginning to congregate,
who will be bored by all this.

From time to time someone must still
dig up a rusted argument
from underneath a bush
and haul it to the garbage dump.

Those who knew
what this was all about
must make way for those
who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as much as nothing.

In the grass, which has grown over
the causes and effects,
someone must lie
with an stalk of grass in his teeth
and gaze at the clouds.

[peacekitten]

it would seem that if your young daughter can grasp the profundity of what is going on and find something of such eloquence to express herself to you, that the so-called adults that have brought on this nightmare could grasp the depravity of what they have done.

thank you for sharing that poem with me and the others here.

[gfm975]

The reason the public is unaware of the fatalities is because we have an inept MEDIA that cares more about sensationalized sex stories or more glamorous news and an administration that cares nothing about or their deaths and wants to hide the numbers dying. Sadly, the media goes along.

[nunzia]

The media are not soley to blame.
The citizenry is stupid.
The media play to the citizenry.
Look at what passes for tv programming now. All garbage, BUT
the people watch it, boosting the ratings, buying the products,
and so it goes on....

[nellie]

I think the citizenry is busy, and many people don't have the luxury of logging onto their $2,000 computers with their $60 a month broadband accounts and surfing the net in their hours of free time. I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position of knowing how to stay informed and having the resources to do it. And having the kind of upbringing that taught me never to trust anything on television.

[Bernique]

On purpose, gmf, by design. The media has been in cahoots with the admin for the past 7 years. When I became aware of it, just before the war on Iraq, I cancelled my subscription to my major newspaper, and started seeking kindred spirits on the internet, magazines and on the airwaves, like Democracy Now, Air America, The Nation, and recently Keith Olbermann. Gave up NPR when it became clear that they were in cahoots, too ( a republican head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a supposedly non-partisan position). We have our work cut out for us.

[NeverRepublican]

As a Persian Gulf vet. (1990) it makes me sick to think that the Iraq War has been put onto the back burner as far as the AMERICAN NEWS CYCLES go.

When was the last time we saw any coverage of Iraq? When was the last time we saw any footage of the so-called "accomplishments" that have taken place in Iraq?...btw...NO ACCOMPLISHMENTS have happened.

Here's the news...as far as infrastructure goes...IRAQ IS A JOKE. HALLIBURTON and KBR have been laughing all the way to the bank with BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF $$.

This war has been a DISASTOR FROM DAY ONE.

Where have you been msnbc...cnn...fake news (fox)...where? People are dying over there and you IDIOTS keep giving us the random murder, tornado, flood or other hollywood shit 24-7...INSTEAD OF GIVING US THE NEWS OF WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IN IRAQ!

I remember...what...3 years ago when those idiot re-stupid-licans came out and cried...the "press" isn't giving America any of the good news coming out of Iraq.

Well here's the news...THERE IS ABSOLUTLEY NO GOOD NEWS AT ALL COMING OUT OF IRAQ...unless you are an oil company.

[williamscody]

I love how you could care less about the thousands of people dying in other places. If nothing good is coming out of Iraq, then all the Iraqis should just kill themselves. That should get at Bush.

[BWonka]

They ARE gettring killed - and we are the cause. Were it not for our occupatuion of Iraq there would be no AlQueda/Iraq. WE caused them to come and start blowing themselves up. And because of the FAILURES of our leaders, Insane McCain wants it to continue another 100 years - while you sit with your head in the sand.

[gonavy]

Because having been there 18 years ago makes you the authority on what happening right now, correct.

There is progress happening, we hear it in letters sent home from the troops. The troops can't understand where the media has gone. They were practically up their butts a few years ago.

Good news doesn't sell.

[chinacatsunflower]

Wow, I'd really be interested in hearing what the letters the troops are sending you say....

[Robert11010]

A few years ago I remember reading that if a soldier is wounded in Iraq, airlifted to Germany for emergency treatment, then dies in Germany, then he is not considered part of the statistics for soldiers dying in Iraq. Is this true? Was it ever true? If so, then the count would be several times greater than the 4,000 number.

[NeverRepublican]

Please check the stat...but I have heard if a soldier doesn't die within 24 hours of his actual battle injuries then he or she is not considered a casualty of war...is this true??

Or mabe that's how it is being classified for this war....not sure.

[timothe]

not according to iraqcasualties.org When they list the deaths of soldiers by name, they include some of those who died in hospitals in other countries.

I check the site everyday because my nephew is in the Marines.

[GarsLuber]

It's much worse than that.

If a soldier is wounded, but later dies in ANY hospital, that death isn't counted as a combat death.

[wmfor]

I heard the same thing, third-hand, from a soldier stationed in Germany. Haven't found a corroboration of it, but it makes sense. Just like fake body counts in Vietnam.

[NickfromCali]

Who'll be the 4,000th to die for a mistake?

(acknowledgements to Bruce Springsteen)

[bobdob]

Actually, that's John Kerry's line. Springsteen snagged it.

[sqweels]

When Bill Clinton was proposing to intervene militarily on Bosnia, Republicans demanded to know, What are you going to tell the loved ones of the troops who come home in body bags?".

[wmfor]

And Bush told them,

"Watch this golf drive!"

[williamscody]

So stop complaining.

[nevergiveup]

What? No US soldiers died in Bosnia. What's your point, exactly?

[klmebane]

that doesn't even make any sense william.. did you understand what that statement meant?? that republicans needed a reason for war with a dem in office, but since there is republiscum in office instead they just fall in line and never question it... the point is that repubs are hypocrites... but then, everyone but THEM already know that.. and i'm counting you in that...

[AurigaRa]

3,974

A number Obama (and Clinton) could easily work into a speech

[riverhouse]

Not Hillary. She can't mention it. She voted for and enthusiastically supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq, hence, bears much responsibility for the dead and wounded, both American and Iraqis.

[LiberalLo]

I know how many precious lives have been lost to george bush's ego. I will be soon attending ANOTHER candlelight ceremony to honor and remember those whose lives were wasted for greed.

[gfm975]

RH654 - you can bet if they don't get troops oput they will have NO 2nd term... well over 60% of Americans will see to that!

[Blackspeare]

Don't forget Nixon said he had a plan to end the Vietnam War and it still took 6 years. The US will have a military contingent in Iraq for a very long time vis-a-vis, Okinawa, Germany, South Korea, and now Iraq.