LTTE: Stop overplaying U.S. war deaths

[Pool Hall Ace]

Overplayed deaths

Daily the major media present stories of the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. The military has endured about 2,000 deaths during our three years of fighting in Iraq. During that same time about 40,000 people have been murdered in the United States and 120,000 have died from motor vehicle accidents. Deaths in Iraq do not even make the U.S. list of top 10 leading causes of death.

Why is it that the same media do not publish all the stories of unnatural deaths of Americans? How significant would our deaths in Iraq be if those deaths were presented in the same proportion as stories of the U.S. deaths from murders and traffic accidents?

That's right, folks. Not only do we not need to see photos of flag-draped coffins, but we need to stop reporting these overhyped war deaths. :sarcasm:

link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/story/2820303p-9267758c.html

[afdip]

1. letter from just another compassionate conservative. . . .

one way to undercut the anti-war movement is to deny the existence of a war. brilliant repuke strategy on a rovian scale.

[Dhalgren]

2. Man, this author really supports the troops - no?

[Pool Hall Ace]

5. I'm thinking that the "support" is confined to a big honkin' yellow ribbon

or two on his vehicle.

This paper rarely reports troop deaths as front page news. You have to go digging for it!

[bryant69]

3. That's a little over the top

But not that surprising I suppose.

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[emanymton]

4. Your Death Is Not Newsworthy.... Mine On The Other Hand ...

The power of the media. Can't help wonder, will Joe from Raleigh feel the same when it is his son/daughter who is returned as a Christmas gift wrapped in a nice flag draped coffin?

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

[Blue_Tires]

6. more astroturf

this is SO 2003, comparing war dead to some other completely arbitrary number to make it look small.

of course, the actual number of iraqi dead never seems to matter to these people....

[Demit]

7. "do not even make the U.S. list of top 10 leading causes of death" ??

What kind of mind would even think of that as an appropriate context? That is so putrid.

[LynnTheDem]

8. Overplayed deaths; 911

Stop overplaying the 3000 deaths from FOUR YEARS AGO.

During that same time about 40,000 people have been murdered in the United States and 120,000 have died from motor vehicle accidents. Deaths from 911 and other terrorist acts do not even make the U.S. list of top 10 leading causes of death.

[jayfish]

10. Bravo!

We don't hear that sentiment enough. Sad thing is that the Right needs and cherishes the 3000 deaths of 9/11. Without them their entire agenda would be DOA.

Jay

[LynnTheDem]

11. Every time a rightwingnut DENIGRATES troop deaths, I just toss it

right back at them with the 911 deaths. Shocks the f*ck out of them coz of course not having minds of their own they never thought about it that way. ;)

[lpbk2713]

9. Mission accomplished

(This message brought to you by your friends at BushCo & Haliburton)

[smoogatz]

12. What a moran.

It's kind of like Hannity claiming that Iraq is safer than California, because more people are murdered in California each year than the total number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. The comparison is obviously disingenuous--or just plain stupid. Compare populations--250,000,000 American civilians vs the 250,000 or so U.S. soldiers cycled in and out of Iraq so far--and it turns out that the odds of an American civilian being murdered in a given year are roughly 1/6250. The odds of a U.S. civilian dying in a car crash are 1/2083. The odds of an American soldier being killed in Iraq are 1/125. I'd much rather take my chances on I95, thank you very much.

On edit: talk about denigrating the service and sacrifice of every soldier and Marine in Iraq. Talk about an insult to the families of the dead and wounded. Jeebus.

[zbdent]

13. But, on that logic - if even 1 percent of the above stated deaths

were COPS - then the media would have been all over about the continual murder spree on policemen.

These apologists for Bush always neglect to point out that the soldiers in Iraq are the equivalent of the police force.

If 2000 police personnel were killed in the same time frame (and, of course, in the line of duty as these soldiers were), there would be a media blitz on the "epidemic".

Oh, and the deaths do get media attention. It's called murder cases.

And another thing about this LTTE writer's logic - how come one blond white young woman in Aruba gets more attention than the soldiers in Iraq?