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

[esquire07]

Bravo - almost 4,000 - and who knows how many innocent Middle Eastern men, women and children have been killed becuase they live atop Oil fields.

All that matters is Oil and Arms profits - money for halliburton, money for the Bush and Cheney criminals and their compadres in Saudi Arabia.

America sold out to the lowest bidder. A criminal in the White House and the Constituion in the gutter. The Bill for Iraq is coming do - and ordinary Americans - dumbed down and ignorant as they may be - will pay the price for allowing the Criminals in the White House to spread untold War, death,, misery and suffering to those poor people.

Disgusting.

[faith]

FINALLY !! This is the best coverage HuffPo has provided in a long, long time ! The large picture with the graphs and subject matter are very helpful. Of course, HuffPo is "preaching to the choir" here, but maybe some of the other blogging sites will pick it up. And, possibly LAT, NYT, etc. will be gripped in a moment of conscience and start covering the wounded and the dead that march to this president's war drum. The general populace has a short memory. Until and unless the draft is reinstated, until the news media start covering the war on a daily basis in honest and real coverage we will continue in this downward spiral.

[JoJoKewl]

More dead for O.I. L.

[rubes187]

How about the number of dead civilians in Iraq or the number or refugees created by this war. The MSM has totally given up on covering this war. If you watch the news for a few days you might even forget that America is at war...and has been for over 5 years...i guess its not the hot story shame on them

[BigLib]

Maybe if the MSM hadn't lied about the numbers for so long people would still be listening to them.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

To split a fine hair, it's not that the MSM has been lying about the numbers as much as the keep using the word "progress" without any context.

Making the grade on 3 out of 18 benchmarks is no one's idea of "progress.­"

The surge is working (in America); it's kept the moderates at bay.

[laocoon]

We may be lost but at least we are making good "progress"

[timothe]

Maybe if the Congress had done its job and checked the power of the president, we wouldn't be counting bodies either.

Our founding fathers understood that one man could abuse his power. So they checked his power for waging war against the 535 members of Congress by forcing a 2/3rds majority. The Democrats had the votes to kill the war resolution but many of them like Clinton and Edwards were more interesting in looking good and getting re-elected than in voting by conscience.

There is proof that the Congress knew the intelligence was thin before they voted. (thin, not false) A Washington Post article from October 10th, 2002 covers in detail the disdain of some anti-war Democrats over the justification for war. Yet too many of them were worried about the upcoming elections coupled with President Bush's 70% approval rating.

So when you charge Bush with murder, don't forget to charge the others as well.

[lapdogs]

Why don't we know about the death totals or what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan in detail?

It the "lapdog" media corpSE folks that fell head over heals for whatever Bush told them!

Isn't the media suppose to do their jobs like McClatchy did back then? Bill Moyers' had a great show named "Buying The War" show, that showed how the media did not ask the tough questions and went with scripted press conferences. Yes, scripted!

Think back to when the war started and how all the "news" media was gun-ho for the war. Remember all that music and those graphics they had ready on queue to play, in order to get your attention when some Iraq story was about to get read?

Has your long-term memory kicked in yet?

Have you heard any "War Music" or seen any "War Graphic Intros" on the cable networks lately, when infrequent news about the war is reported? No! The primaries have taken over the news and Iraq and Afghanistan have become another "Forgotten War". When a primary is not in the news, more "fluff" news about some Hollywood star takes priority.

Bush, Cheney, GI Joe, McCain and other "We Need More Wars" hawks keep telling us that the surge is working. Well, if thats the case, then why don't we see any MSM Reporters giving you the news from the "safe streets" in Iraq?

Those of you old enough to remember Vietnam, knew that reporters like Cronkite or Rather and other reporters back then doing their reporting from the Vietnam battlefields, while shots were heard in the back round. "Green Zones" that kept you away from the action of our soldiers did not exist back then.

Print this McClatchy report out and check off how much of this news gets reported today:

Round-up of Daily Violence in Iraq, Thursday 13 February 2008
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/212/story/30233.html

Its for all these reasons that the public is unaware of the death count in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the status of how the war is really going.

[white mende man]

what about had the music that were banned from the air waves because no one needs to hear about stuff like "Give Peace a Chance"?

[Fresnobill314]

Clinton and Obama have dropped the ball on this issue. The honored dead must be mentioned at every event these two candidates speak. We all should never forget the price this country has paid for putting a moron into the White House.

[nellie]

I couldn't agree more. The price of oil has risen by more than dollars and cents. We need to make the connection between corporate profits and bloodshed, and we're just not willing to do it.

[ibsteve2u]

Just the way the Administration likes it...every­day awareness of the dead and dying is bad for recruiting. Too much bad publicity, and the military might have to raise elistment and reenlistment bonuses again - which would cause the Administration to give the Pentagon shit for diverting money away from the defense industries.

[WeMustChange]

Hillary Clinton claims she has 35 years experience yet she votes to kill thousands of Americans, hundreds of thousands of foreigners, responsible for 2 trillion in defecit and the list goes on. You ca't tell me that experience is the cause of you voting for an unjust war Senator Clinton.

You should be ashamed to even run for President with your flip flopping ways. I would never vote for a power hungry woman of your caliber.

I am casting my vote for Barack Obama!

[Witkacy]

Clinton speaks, always, as if at the moment of her speech on the floor in 2002 justifying her vote for Bush's Authorization we were *all of us* as one mind, pretty certain of the "facts" and determined to act--But, christ, I know that I was pretty damned horrified to hear what she said that day (I still remember that I heard it on the radio, while driving), and felt sick to my stomach that even in the face of facts to the contrary the Democrats had decided to follow through on BushCo's Iraq delusion.

The facts did not change - the forgeries, retouched or misinterpreted recon photos, wackadoo fantasies of drunk insane wannabes ("Curveball") or of frauds (Chalabi, Wolfowitz, Judith Miller...) stank then as they do now. It's just that some people, some of them dirt-ignorant but many of them canny and cynical people, like Hillary Clinton, have grown more comfortable with some of the facts these years later.

[EinChicago]

Because Obama has never seen a war funding bill he didn't like and support!

[sqweels]

Fair enough, but what should gall all of us is the way the Republicans are blaming Hillary and the other Democrats for starting this war.

[SonnyBono]

Almost 4000 dead American servicemen and our "beloved" leader still has not had the opportunity to go to any of their funerals. He claims to have visited with the families and tells them that we will stay the course which means how many more dead ?

I guess W just so loves the troops as long as he doesn't personally have to be inconvienced by things like funerals and all that other stuff that is such a downer to an uncluddered mind.

I wonder how much he would care if he or Laura actually knew these young men but of course, people from the Bush social circle can't be bothered to join the military but they do wear those snappy little lapel flags which prove they are real patriots - and no doubt, they have the bumper stickers on the SUVs and limos.

[WLA]

Psychopaths lack the ability to sympathize.

[PioneerKing]

The main stream media is aware and unconcerned. It does not suit the corporate interests of the MSM to divulge the death counts of a war that the MSM media was so instrumental in promoting.
Moreover, the republicans who purportedly are the "party that supports our troops," and is the same party that says "we are strong on national defense," has proven that they have used this war and as a partisan tool. The republicans are disingenuous in their concern for our troops, and their physical and mental health. The republicans and the MSM have a lot of explaining to do.

[hopeless277]

And nobody cares. If they're stupid enough to join the Army, then their deaths mean nothing to the public. After all, it's not like these soldiers are celebrities, right? So support the troops and let them stay in Iraq forever. Oh, and screw that rotation thing. They can come home when they WIN!!! USA, USA, USA. GO TEAM, YEA!!!!

[EinChicago]

I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic. My younger brother was extremely proud of being in the army. He was also an extremely intelligent person, a fantastic medic with a great medical degree and grades that would make beverly hills plastic surgeons green with envy.

But when he joined up after med school it was in the Serbia/Bosnia days and he truly believed he would be doing good in the world. Which he did.

[kappa08]

There is NOTHING wrong with serving your country. I did myself and am very proud of it. I received structure and focus I couldn't get anywhere else.

When I post on the decisions made by these soldiers. It's out of respect for THEM. Not the bleeding hearts that feel it necessary to treat them as victims of this war. AND if there are soldiers that view themselves as victims. Then Shame on them. They didn't think it through and have made a very poor *DECISION*.

I'm sorry but this bullshit crying how this should be the first thing on every Americans mind is not doing any good. Recognize and move on. And just maybe "family" will have the courage and fortitude to persuade anybody from joining in this glorified dope show. It has been proven by EVERYBODY that it's a farce. Including the recent Pentagon inquiry into over 600,00 Iraqi docs.

I know I am infuriating people with my glib/cynical posts. THAT'S what I want. For people to SEE the reality of your decisions and to stop this whack McCarthyism that does nobody any good. ESPECIALLY the soldiers.

[kappa08]

Thank you...It seems when I try to post the same sentiment I get tossed.
Sorry It's a CHOICE! And a pretty bad one when your "leadership" mocks his own stupid decisions.

[willisbones]

The 28% of Americans who can say "nearly 4,000" have been killed in Iraq would be accused by the Bush group as exaggerating the numbers because they hate Bush.

There is no question in my mind that the war and the death toll and, just as importantly, the toll of wounded, especially the brain injured, should be every day's top story in the mainstream media.

I understand that it is not an issue or a story that easily "sells" readers. It is too sad and too depressing; but, the devastated families and the wounded deserve more attention and more care and more help than they are currently receiving.

[CintiBlue]

But, the media could "sell" this issue if it chose to. In another atmosphere, this devastating war could be as much a part of the public conversation as all the other stuff if those in control made it so.

[brooklyncitizen]

Interesting post. But what sells is really about conditioning. We have become a nation so lacking in compassion and depth. If we had proper coverage and if the media had taken ownership of their role and responsibility then we would care and be more responsive. The media is commercial and has a corporate agenda and in no way is it "free press".

Independent media is the way ...I try to turn as many people as possible onto Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. What is really telling iabout American culture is that I personally discovered
DN from a Brit friend in the UK.The entire world is much more news savvy.

[Beano]

Remember Bush searched his office looking for WMDs while the stooges laughed in the background? I wonder if he found any of the nearly 4000 bodies that he'd sent there to hunt for them?

[GarsLuber]

bush boy doesn't look THAT direction.

[GhostintheMachine]

May God Bless them and may they rest in peace.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Agreed.

So let's not rest while more are being sent in the name of God.

[laocoon]

But what will really matter on the Judgment Day is what your country's won-loss record was in wars.