United States numb to Iraq troop deaths: experts

[Barrett808]

United States numb to Iraq troop deaths: experts
By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a small box titled "Names of the Dead" on page 10, The New York Times recorded the passing of Cpt. Mark Paine this week, who died after a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Iraq.

His local California newspaper, the Contra Costa Times, ran more than 700 words on Paine's death, including interviews with his mother, father and even his old Scoutmaster, while the San Francisco Chronicle ran a 500-word obituary.

This local coverage of U.S. military deaths "actually has a bigger affect on public opinion than the overall trends," said Matt Baum, an associate professor of politics at University of California, Los Angeles.

...

"In Iraq, certainly while we were losing relatively small numbers of soldiers early on, I think that was a huge shock," said Max Boot, a senior fellow of national security studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

"But now that it's kind of accumulated it doesn't have as much of a shock value. This is reminiscent of (Soviet dictator Joseph) Stalin's phrase about how 'one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.' There's some truth to that."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061020/us_nm/iraq_media_usa_dc

[deutsey]

1. If we had a real, independent press in this country,

one that regularly investigates and reports what's really happening rather than serving as corporate mouthpieces, maybe people would be more informed and, consequently, more appalled and outraged.

[acmavm]

2. And just think of what the reaction would be if we had the

REAL casualty figures.

How's it going in Camp Not-There-Anymore in Baghdad I wonder. You can't tell me there were no fatalities in those horrible explosions. I saw the videos. They odd are astromically against that being true.

[dos pelos]

16. camp not-there-anymore is camp falcon

there was an attack on this camp 10/10/06.there is contention out there on the net(I can't say where because the moderator will get after me)that there were a lot of US KIA in that attack.The argument I read was that the numbers are being suppressed.Imagine that.Just like vietnam,when under a Democratic president,casualty figures were suppressed and manipulated to fit political ends.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

17. known propaganda outlet

that's why the mods won't let you post it.

I read that article, and it's bunk.

[dos pelos]

18. who defines what is propaganda?

By what criteria?Why is it that the truth is revealed outside of the confines of a herded group content with their consensus?Do you think that Democrat administrations have not lied and manipulated and suppressed casualty figures when it was politically convenient to do so?Do you think Republican administrations,particularly this one,are above that?Nothing to see here,move along?There is an ideological prejeduce here(which I will accept,when in Rome and all that...)about where truth can be found and who may speak it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

19. facts do

WHO IS . . .Free Arab Voice?

Organization:
Jihad Unspun
Bruce Kennedy
#300 - 1497 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC V7T1B8
CA
Phone: [phone]
Fax..: [phone]
Email:

[e-mail]
Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: JIHADUNSPUN.COM

Created on..............: Fri, Jan 04, 2002
Expires on..............: Sun, Jan 04, 2004
Record last updated on..: Wed, May 21, 2003

Administrative Contact:
Jihad Unspun
Bruce Kennedy
#300 - 1497 Marine Drive
West Vancouver, BC V7T1B8
CA
Phone: [phone]
Fax..: [phone]
Email:

[e-mail]

[dos pelos]

23. this is all over the net,many many sites

Novosti,The Guardian(scottish),many Arabic sites cover this story,many sites which I cannot refer to here due to moderator rules/preferences(I will abide....),its all over the place.The political pressure to suppress a disastrous attack with many casualties is obvious.Camp Falcon in the Green Zone got hit and blew up,big time.Reports of large medical air evacuation.Some sites have purported casualty lists.Is it all crap?Maybe.Is there great political pressure to supress news of this should it have occurred.You bet.Would the current administration do such a thing.Yeah.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

24. Track them back to the "original source"

I did, and I found the Arab Voice there every time.

Casualties evacuated? sure, lots of wounded... that makes sense.

Covering up deaths? This isn't Vietnam in that regard, we have the Internets now, there's no way they would be able to cover up massive deaths for more than a day or two, and this was over a week ago.

[tblue37]

21. I have wondered whether they are hiding the dead from that attack and

then dribbling them out as casualties from other causes. Maybe that could explain the unusually high number of casualties this month.

[dos pelos]

15. corporate owned media,corporate owned politics

Both republican and democrat.We are heavily propagandized.Even the debate,dissent and supposed antagonisim between republican and democratic parties is,at times a set up,sham,good cop bad cop routine.Our choices are very limited...which corporate owned political venue do you want to follow?

[RedEarth]

3. I hadn't seen Stalin's quote before...very interesting...

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. Baloney!

As my dear old mother used to say. I know bullshit when I hear it. The deaths in Iraq are not made visible at all to the public. The deaths ought to be front page news daily. Then the public would be up in arms about this situation. This 'war' is being fought under our noses and many in this country don't have an opinoin because they simply are unaware of what is going on. It is our job to awaken our sleeping brethren...........
Sadly, I am at a loss as to how to do that.

[rodeodance]

5. i see a lot of towns I never heard of when I read the reports---surely,

it brings home Irag to them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. That's bullshit. Shell shock is setting in as more and more people

know someone who lost someone.

[cassiepriam]

7. Same thing with the 600,000 Iraqi deaths. Americans could care

less. What kind of a country are we?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. excuse me, but may I suggest that you are in error?

Americans DO care. They care about the 3000 troops, the 25,000 serious, permanent injuries and they care about the 650,000 dead IraqNamis.

It is the MSM that does not care. It isn't in their corporate plan.

[cassiepriam]

9. Polls show Americans are more interested in gas prices than Iraqi deaths.

I wish you were right.

And that Americans were not soulless monsters.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. yeah. you have a point.

I suspect that the most conservative self-described ultra-religious folks have the least amount of empathy, sympathy and integrity.

[cassiepriam]

12. just as I said, no souls there. Just empty bodies. nt

[bdamomma]

25. the blame is our corporate media to shield all the death of our

soldiers from the American Public. We who remember the Vietnam war we had it shown in our living rooms every night. Shame on us and the media.

[maxsolomon]

10. there is no space to care in

*'s flying monkeys have made sure that the families of the troops are alienated from those opposed to the war through relentless propaganda. and the proof that it works is in the army's recruitment numbers - a steady stream of cannon fodder signing up.

where do you demonstrate collective grief? on our car bumpers? on websites?

i know no one in the services, i know no one who has died. signing up for pointless death is not something my children or any of their friends have considered. they were far too well informed by their high school US history teacher - they read howard zinn.

[dipsydoodle]

13. They are now viewed as being statistics

whereas the earlier ones were regarded as tragedies.

[ldf]

14. a five second mention on the corporate news

has no chance of really sinking in to our national psyche.

we DO, however, get to hang on every salacious innuendo the infotainment industry comes up with regarding sexual peccadilloes, or flag waving, chest thumping nationalism.

the media ain't gonna report it, and the american public doesn't care.

it doesn't take a mental giant to read between the lines of the news we DO get, but we, as a country, are much more interested realty shows and celebrity gossip.

like some anonymous iraqi said, americans are the most over entertained and undereducated people on the planet.

:shrug:

[olddad56]

20. Here is another government secret. Over 44,000 wounded US troops.

I'm guessing that the majority of those peoples' lifes are ruined.

[Lisa]

22. the right-wingers in Canada are trying to make the press stop covering

... the ramp ceremonies and funerals of the troops. They have been accusing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and other media outlets of deliberately "destroying morale". Ironically, some of the same people have been complaining for years that Canadians do not spend enough time thinking of the military, and honouring their sacrifices -- so this turnabout, and the motives for it, have been criticized. And also some of the soldiers' families have come forward to say that they approve of the coverage (the cameras are at a respectful distance and the grieving relatives generally are not approached).

There has even been a proposal to half-mast the flag over the Parliament buildings for a day, for each soldier lost.