Five Years of the War in Iraq: Where’s the Media Coverage?

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, but you wouldn’t know it from what you see on TV.

With all the scandal-mongering coverage of the Democratic primary, the media’s been too busy to spend much time talking about the two wars we’re still fighting. In fact, just 3% of the news in February was dedicated to the war. That’s down from 15% of news coverage last July. For the men and women risking their lives overseas, that’s a slap in the face.

And it’s skewing Americans’ perceptions of the war. Over 80% of Americans are aware that Oprah Winfrey endorsed Senator Obama, yet only 28% know how many American troops have died in Iraq. That’s less than one in three Americans. For any readers who aren’t sure, the casualty number is about to hit 4,000. You can see the names and faces of these brave men and women here.

Most Americans will say that it’s the very least we can do is take the time to honor their sacrifice. But how can we, as Americans, claim to be honoring their sacrifice if the average American can’t even measure it?

We can do better.

I know it’s an election year, and that the economy is in trouble. I know that it’s easier to endlessly replay the latest gaffe from a candidate than to take your camera outside the Green Zone. But news of the ongoing wars shouldn’t fall by the wayside.

You can help remind them. Please take a minute now to sign an open letter and demand the major networks increase their coverage of the Iraq war.

The media must demonstrate that they can walk and chew gum at the same time.

– By Paul Rieckhoff

Popularity: 2% [?]

The American people are party to a gross criminal act in Iraq. They need to be kept keenly aware of what is happening there. Then, perhaps eventually they will do something about it. Impeaching George Bush, Dick Cheney, and anyone impeachable who supports them would be a good start. After that, they, and the business leaders they serve, can be sent to international criminal court to stand trial for war crimes and gross crimes against humanity.

If each day four Americans would be killed plus fifty or sixty Iraqis dfor five years the world would rise up and drag the culprit into court and punish them.
That would be called mass murder. If we complain about the murdering we are made suspects. Men like the blood crazed veep or butchers in uniform dare to call us subversive and the killing goes on each body costing america millions and bringing nothing but shame and guilt. Remember the Germans had collective guilt and the Russian reduced half of Germany to rubble with our blessing.
What ought to be the punishment for America?

The official number of American war dead only covers those who died in theatre, not those who died as a direct result of having been there. It’s not just the Veteran and Service Member suicides. There was a Marine Major who died of a heart attack 2 weeks after he got back stateside. Everybody who knew him said the stress eventually killed him, but since our government is so cheap, his wife only got a 1 time death gratuity instead of his retirement because they said it wasn’t combat related. Talk about a shafting and there have been other incidences like that. What about that Army Master Sergeant who was retiring, got stop lossed, sent to Iraq and shipped home in a box. They didn’t have to retire him and his widow got shafted, just like the Major’s widow. This regime doesn’t care about anything but themselves and their contractor buddies.

Where’s the coverage? Well seems the media prefers to “embed” in the presidential campaigns than in Iraq. Seems the American people believe that a new President will poof! cause the War to go away during the swearing-in ceremony. And it seems that we, the people, are more freaked out about losing our homes, paying for groceries, facing increasing healthcare costs. . . than about people dying in a war zone half-way across the world. In short, it’s not that we don’t care - but we have no more energy for it. And the media is reflecting our malaise. This doesn’t stop the dying of course - but since we’ve never really been exposed to the endless caskets being flown home, dying in war is merely a snapshot on our visual and emotional horizons.