As Iraq-war-fatigue infects our Wolfs and Katies and Brians and Tims and Times and Newsweeks and all our daily papers, too -- with the percentage of news-time devoted to the war now shaved to a pitiful 3% -- the same flu-like torpor is filtering down to viewers and readers: when U.S. deaths passed 4,000 last month, only one in four Americans knew about -- much less mourned -- that hideous landmark. Three quarters of us, when asked to guess the carnage, were at least a thousand corpses off.
And if it seems to you like war coverage is way, way down, you're right: just as recently as last July, coverage of the war -- distorted as it may have been by the work of lazy, corrupt, or too-cozily embedded "reporters" -- was five times greater than now, according to The Project for Excellence in Journalism. And it's surely no coincidence that back then, twice as many Americans were able to answer that same ghoulish poll-question -- how many American soldiers have died in Iraq? -- within a thousand, give or take a couple of dead bodies.
In other words, we're becoming stupider and stupider about the war in direct proportion to the programming we receive from the mainstream media.
The dead are receding into a haze of doubletalk, false-talk, or no talk at all. This kind of ignorance -- which is not even bliss -- dishonors those we claim to revere most. But we all have a vague sense of why we're losing track of the story; nowadays it's presented to us as way too complex -- Shia-on-Shia, Sadr City, Basra, Maliki -- it's all come to seem like some ancient, esoteric sport played in dismal foreign stadiums, by weird-looking strangers, according to byzantine yet uninteresting rules.
And, of course, thanks to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, we see no flag-draped coffins. Not one, much less four thousand. No buglers playing Taps to refresh our memories. We see not one split-open gut, much less tens of thousands. No, unlike the war-deaths of the quaint and bygone twentieth century, all these deaths take place off-stage. And, to its eternal discredit, the American media -- not wanting to risk losing those precious "embeds" -- surely the most nauseatingly coy term in the history of reporting -- plays along with this clever piece of Pentagon stagecraft.
If we did see war photos -- if we did see the coffins -- more of us would know, maybe even down to the very last dead soldier, the latest casualty figures.
But, of course, the question that the Pew Research Center did not even bother to ask the American public is: how many Iraqis have we killed, as of today?
Ever since the Pentagon public-relations people smartened up, post-Viet Nam, and stopped estimating "enemy" dead -- i.e. non-Caucasian corpses -- and ever since a compliant press stopped asking (bad form!), that's a statistic that need not worry the pretty little talking-heads of the networks. But surprisingly enough, and much to his credit, David Letterman raised the subject last week to none other than that serial-reality-denier John McCain, who got predictably flustered when Letterman said: "Untold Iraqis dead. We rarely hear that number. What would that number be? A quarter of a million? Half a million?"
"It's hard to make these estimates," McCain said, "but it's in the hundreds of thousands, obviously."
Well, it's doubtful that even round-the-clock fatality counts blazing in electric lights against the night sky, like the Deaths from Smoking billboards in L.A., would help a mind like McCain's in its daily battle against denial and/or dementia, but according to the best recent estimates, here's the figure, John, and here's the figure, American news outlets, if you're interested:
1,196,514.
That's an educated guess, of course, pieced together by the few who still care, based on figures from The Lancet, the British medical journal. Too bad it can't be fixed with the same grim statistical purity as our own casualty figures; but then death is a sloppier business over there, underneath the rubble, in the bombed restaurants and devastated apartments and blood-soaked schools.
And, of course, you can't expect American reporters--I'm sorry, embeds -- to roam around counting up every dead Iraqi child.
It's too dangerous over there!
And there isn't really an audience for that kind of news.
Dave Lindorff: Censorship American-Style: Hide the US Dead
When American policy-makers talk about the "lesson of Vietnam," they're talking about the "lesson" of not letting the American people learn the real nature and cost of the war in question.
Eric Boehlert: Little Green Footballs, Staged War Photos, and the Story the Press Won't Tell
The right-wing blogs' occasional 'scoops' are celebrated by the MSM, but their day-to-day conspiracy theories, along with their unapologetic hatred, are politely ignored.
What was it that Kipling said, when the loss of his son brutally brought him out of his fantasy of war as a glamorous high drama? Something about we died because our fathers lied. What would it take for Americans to care about these kids of ours dying in Iraq?
We all know that courage is something that can only be proven after the fact. I understand how a mother would dislike the war in Iraq. (My mother has the same thoughts) However, I know that this war cannot be taken away and, in my opinion will do great things, not only for Iraq,but for the rest of the world. To "drop out" of this war would be the same as putting a bucket of meat in front of a bunch of rabid pit-bulls! Iran, Siria, Saudi Arabia and a host of others would send in money, weapons and fighters who (unlike the United States) don't care how many civilians they kill or torture.
You may disagree with me but I have experience and knowledge that you do not. Please change your opinion for the sake of Our Great Nation and the lives of the Iraqi People and our own.
Since many of you posted your poems, I have one to share:
IT IS THE SOLDIER
IT IS THE SOLDIER, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
IT IS THE SOLDIER, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
IT IS THE SOLDIER, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
IT IS THE SOLDIER, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
IT IS THE SOLDIER, who salutes the flag.
Who serves under the flag and
Whose coffin is draped by the flag
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
- Charles M. Province
The region of the world where civilization BEGAN and the American media could not possibly give any context to the current problems.
The closest shows I saw were on the Travel Channel, for God's sake.
Had I been a television producer I would have scoured the world looking for film, even home movies about Iraq and Afghanistan. I would have shown everything I could find. I would have put on college professors who were experts, Arabs, Iranians and Afghans who could explain their history and culture.
Islamic scholars and experts to explain their faith to the American people.
None of that happened.
So I don't know why we would expect anything to be better now.
I am sorry to see only 9 people responded to a long over due Wake up to all of American to what is important or should I say what should be important instead of the soap opera style media forums on all subject matters.
when the war was on TV, we saw the truth of soldiers were going through. We were physically in our elected official faces. Now the new generations say that style of protest is obsolete, Just sitting on your ass using your blackberry or applepod to blog your protest. That is the new way to tell old baby boomer that refuse to retire but just die on the job in an elected office and let their spouse take their jobs without being elected.
By now if you would have used the Entertainment tonight style or added naked women, thousand would have logged in. American of all race, and ages clearly are their own worst enemy.
Perhaps you should remind them what Bin Laden's mission is like it was for Russia to bankrupt us.
Bring down the super power. By now is more like stupider power.
Again thanks.
Yeah, and we need jobs and pay increases too.
See all the ads on TV and even HuffPost? That's where the money comes from to produce TV and HuffPost. Viewers and readers contribute nothing. Until advertisers see a connection between presentation of facts and their sales revenue...ain't gonna be no freakin' change.
Convince advertisers that they must demand change. OTOH, TV viewers prefer "Survivor" to broadcast/cable Nightly news. Get the point?