US casualties surge in Iraq, but public impact is muffled

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041130/pl_afp/us_iraq_casualties&cid=1521&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - American casualties in Iraq (news - web sites) surged in November as US forces pressed a bid to pacify the country's Sunni heartland but the high toll appears to have had little impact on public support for the war, analysts said.


The killing of a soldier in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad late Monday raised the US death toll for the month to 134, one less than the record set in April when US forces faced uprisings in Fallujah and cities in southern Iraq.


The battle for Fallujah, where US and Iraqi forces fought house-to-house against insurgents entrenched in the city since April, claimed more than a third of the US casualties in November -- at least 55 soldiers and marines between November 8 and November 20.


Nearly as many US troops were killed in November as during the two months of "major combat operations" that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

more

[shoelace414]

1. Freedom is on the march

[goodboy]

2. weren't some killed today?

[shoelace414]

3. Freedom is messy.. free people are free to kill..

[NNN0LHI]

4. The only reporting I have caught on the cable news was about Laci Peterson

Don't know if anyone was "hurt" in Iraq today or not?

Don

[shrike]

5. The American people don't give a damn about anything or anyone

but themselves. Sad but true.

[Dzimbowicz]

10. I agree

Only when a draft is in effect and their children are being sent will they start to care. As long as the deaths and woundings are "someone else" the majority does not care.

[Robbien]

6. If the media doesn't report it, how would the public know to react?

Iraq is just a barely mentioned item in news reports. It is only online where one finds out the situation in Iraq. And it is even getting harder to locate Iraqi news online.

So Yahoo is now saying the public doesn't care without saying the public does not know.

[izzie]

7. Everyone at Thanksgiving was talking about it

I think it is slowly being put into peoples mind. I have also seen on TV about the 7000 wounded vs. what 'Stars and Stripes' is saying 20,000. Also just what kills a man is not getting that feel that they want. People are classing this as wounded and death by war.What a waste of people.

[Q]

8. Well...the Corporate Media doesn't exactly go out of their way...

...in reporting the truth on the Iraq Invasion/Occupation. The last thing they want is an informed citizenry (and voter).

[NYC Liberal]

9. I say the truth is a bit muffled over at CNN and Faux.

[leftchick]

11. This thread with a yahoo link says 135 for Nov.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1032446

I am sure it is much more anyway. RIP soldiers. :(

[leftchick]

12. what horseshit!

from the end...
<snip>

Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, noted that during the Vietnam War casualties were much higher, and yet it took years before they divided the American public, turning it against the war.


"So I think, losing 134 people it's probably not going to have much of an impact on a country of over a quarter a billion people," he told AFP.


"It's possible these relatively light losses, tragic though they are, are probably strengthening public resolve to see the combat through to the end," he said.


"The burden is bearable for the nation, and yet the awareness of the losses may strengthen the resolve that they shouldn't be in vain," he said.

[LynnTheDem]

15. Loren is stupid; it also took SIX YEARS for US deaths to hit 500 in 'Nam

But Loren is a good little bush apologist.

[RFM]

17. then why don't they show the caskets comming back, loren?

""The burden is bearable for the nation, and yet the awareness of the losses may strengthen the resolve that they shouldn't be in vain," he said."

creeps :puke:

[Gyre]

13. This is a good test

to see how the public will react to mass casualties. Apparently, they don't care; sort of opens the door. Since Vietnam we've only been interested in targets we could steamroll w/o any meaningful casualties. Now we can go after targets that might fight back. Make you think of any country in particular? 2 guesses, the first doesn't count.

Gyre

[AlCzervik]

14. It's all a big fucking video game to the public

[RamboLiberal]

16. It won't impact most Americans until there is a draft

and they or their kid have chance of being called up.

[Bigmack]

25. Several posters have said this...

... stuff about the draft.

It looks like re-thinking the war isn't even happening in the small towns that have lost a disproportionately high number of their National Guard kids.

The warfreaks (or dumbshits) turn a high death toll into a reason FOR continuing the war. Once we lose enough troops, those assholes figure we have to stay in there and lose more... because if we pull out we'll have wasted the lives already lost.

They're still re-fighting the Vietnam war using that reasoning. 58,000 dead wasn't nearly enough.

[ramapo]

18. People really don't care

Out of sight, out of mind.

Unless there's a personal connection, people basically don't give a moment's thought about Iraq. Maybe they slap a magnetic ribbon on their SUV and feel proud of themselves.

[Dr Fate]

19. So long as "those other people" are the only ones serving in combat...

...this will be the norm. This is why Bush will NEVER be stupid enugh to bring on a real draft.

People stopped giving a rats ass long ago.

Somtimes I'm tempted to join them just to see if my health improves.

[VegasWolf]

20. Support the Ooops! n/t

[bhikkhu]

21. Numb may be the word

What is the appropriate patriotic response to our country leveling a city of 300,000? Grabbing for the remote.

[magellan]

22. If I may, "grabbing for the remote..."

....so they can TiVo it and watch it over dinner after they come home from shopping.

Screw the retards. If all this spilt blood is achieving anything useful I have yet to see it.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

23. People don't care

least of all the bushbots! Hey they VOTED for this! More blood! YEAH!

They don't fucking CARE that troops are being killed for nothing.

Support the troops my ass. All they support them is in being killed.

[Ian David]

24. Most dead soldiers come from the blue states

How do we fix that?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

26. Ha!

Yet ANOTHER reason for them not to care.

That just burns me up. More redstate repukes need to sign the hell up to fight their Commander Fulldiaper's war!

[Supersedeas]

27. Little impact on public support--is the public truly informed?

Before one can reach the conclusion that there is not impact,
there has to be a 'there' there.

[SodoffBush]

28. Scott Peterson

Ask America anything!