9 US Troops Down the Memory Hole

[BreakForNews]

As earlier reported here on DU, over the weekend
8 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq:

Dozens killed in Iraq; 8 U.S. troops die
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2479301

Well, make that 9 soldiers, according to the lastest update.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

The little details we have are these:

"four died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in
northern Baghdad, one was killed by a roadside bomb in western
Baghdad and one by gunfire in the eastern part of the capital.
An American soldier also was killed Saturday in a roadside bomb
southeast of Baghdad"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003230823_iraq28.html

But the latest news articles on this are headlined like this:

40 killed as Shiites battle Iraqi forces
By THASSIN ABDUL-KARAIM, Associated Press Writer

Shiite militiamen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic assault rifles battled Iraqi forces for 12 hours Monday, leaving at least 40 people dead, most soldiers, and underlining the Shiite-led government's difficulties as it tries to rein in the violent sectarian forces of an anti-U.S. cleric.

The fighting in this southern city dominated a bloody day that saw at least 20 other people killed in Baghdad, including 16 in a suicide bombing targeting the Interior Ministry complex. The U.S. military announced that nine U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad, eight by roadside bombs and one by gunfire.

And that's it. Not a further mention of any detail of the nine killed.
And no mention in the headline any longer.

As a journalist I find it very ususual that a news article mentions the
issue of the nine soldiers in the second paragraph, but never comes
back to provide more details of these deaths.

It's standard practice to ensure that items mentioned in para 1 or 2 are
expanded on later in the article. It's a journalistic goof-up not to follow up.

Anyway, the death toll started out late Sunday as "6 U.S. soldiers" killed in Iraq;
then 7;
then 8;
now nine.

Six U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq
...four American Soldiers died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad,
the U.S. military command said Monday. Another roadside bomb killed a U.S. Soldier in western
Baghdad, while gunfire in the eastern part of the capital killed another. The military had
earlier reported the death an American Soldier Saturday in a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad...
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,111499,00.html

But if you read that again.... it comes out 7 dead.
Six on Sunday, one on Saturday. It's a spin headline.
At least the Jerusalem Post got it right:

Iraq: 50 dead over weekend including 7 US troops
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525957271&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Now as the reported weekend toll climbs to nine,
the whole thing is being subsumed into the
Shia clashes, and the details drop off.

Here's Fox News from the Google cache:

Iraq Violence Claims 48; Eight US Soldiers Killed Over Weekend
FOX News - 13 hours ago
DIWANIYAH, Iraq — At least 34 people were killed and dozens injured in gunbattles
between Shiite militiamen loyal to a popular cleric and Iraqi and US troops ...
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=Eight+US+Soldiers&btnG=Search+News

But if you click on that story now it is headlined:

Nearly 50 Killed in Iraq Violence
Monday, August 28, 2006
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210731,00.html

I'm not seeing the nine dead soldiers on Google News or Yahoo.

http://news.google.com
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Iraq

Is this damage limitation, anybody?

Am I missing the big coverage somewhere.

Or maybe it was just a bad dream, and now
on Monday night it's like it never happened.


Original Post:
http://www.breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=680

[zeemike]

1. Well if you missed the big coverage so did I n/t

[genie_weenie]

2. There are no Troops in Iraq

just Volunteers who love their jobs and are happy to be used in whatever manner is deemed necessary.

Onward Democracy...

[alittlelark]

7. Your post made me very sad

That is indeed how many think. Damn, this is all so wrong - the rabbit-hole I fell down seems to have no end.


How did we get here?:cry:

[genie_weenie]

9. Sorry, but you're right that is

what many think.

U
Signed the
Motherfuckin'
Contract

And those same people don't bat an eye when their favorite sports hero holds out of his contract for more money yet they expect young men and women to be willing to throw their lives away (in more ways than the obvious one) for lies and hegemony...

:patriot:

[alittlelark]

10. Sigh and....

cry:cry:

[Jacobin]

3. but but but all the generals just said

violence was down by 50%...oh wait that was yesterday

[Buzz Clik]

4. Great thread.

The soldiers dying in Iraq are, as you stated so elegantly, being lost to memory. They are not mere statistics to be paraded about as a grim reminder of the wickedness of war. (I truly despise the Daily Death Count threads here at DU.) Nor are they liabilities to be relegated to freight and snuck back into the country.

Tonight there are nine more grieving families whose lives have been forever changed for the worse. These soldiers and their families deserve much, much more.

[GCP]

5. Sickening

Massive bombs aka Divine Strake won't protect troops, super-cruise Air Force jets are not effective against insurgencies, HMMWVSs are definitely not designed to withstand road-side bombs, let alone sniper or small arms fire. B2 bombers at 2.2 Billion a piece will not stop an insurgency.

What would 2.2 Billion do? It would pay for the Federal Education budget almost three times over. What could our kids do with that sort of money, if their teachers had it? Imagine that. 2.2 billion dollars, the price of a single B2 bomber. Can you imagine all the shit-hot engineers this would produce? Think Kelly Johnson times 50. Think Skunkworks times 25.

Now, imagine that instead of 4 B2 Bombers, we instead give a trillion dollars to our public shools. Of course, the fundies will never let this happen, because they're sooo fucking scared of non-bible teachings, especially when they're geared towards teachings that don't condone spending billions on artificial defense. There's bad people out there.

YES! Of course there are bad people out there, and there are ways of dealing with them, one is to NOT sells chemical weapons to them and then turn around and point fingers. Another is to NOT sell weapons to your own private army of insurgents in South America, because they will be found out, they will be tortured, and they will be killed. But before one of them dies, they'll shop you out, isn't that right, Rummy?

[Jed Dilligan]

6. Glad to be #5!

I've been noticing this crap for years now!

Thanks for documenting it!

:kick:

[il_lilac]

8. k & r

does anyone notice besides us?