Something other than hockey
As I've been religiously watching the hockey games, I'm happy to see that the Oilers won the second game of the series. The series is now tied at 1 and they are moving back to the loudest building in the NHL, Rexall Place with the momentum with them.
However, there is something that I have been following with a bit of interest since about February. It has to do with the number of American casualties in the Iraq war. The war, or GWBs war has been going on since 2003 with no immediate end in sight. It has been going on for so long now that news about the war needs to be really large for it to make it to the headlines. That even includes the number of American casualties. I get most of my American news from yahoo since I don't have access to newspapers. About a year ago, yahoo was really reliable for headlines about the war in Iraq. They would provide news about the many failures there, but it also provided news about the number of American casualties. Then for some reason in February, the headlines seemed to stop.
I wasn't sure what this meant. Were Americans becoming desensitized to the deaths of their fellow citizens that they didn't need to have these as headlines or was something like the DoD putting pressure on news centres to stop providing this type of news to the public? I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that people all over the world should be constantly reminded of the sacrifices made by this people regardless of whether you think the war was justified or not.
The link I have provided on this entry gives you the 'stats' if you will of the number of deaths americans, british, others and iraqis have suffered since the start of the war. Americans are verging on 2400 deaths, which is equivalent to the population of the High School that I went to. Perhaps what shocked me the most was the number of wounded. Americans have over 17 000 people who are wounded!! I can't even imagine that number of people being injured.
Why? Link
posted by David @ 5:15 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
As usual, I am reading your blog when I should be studying. Don't you just love Anatomy!
The Iraqi War has become effectively the Vietnam War of this generation. What was it that eventually brought and end to American involvment in 'Nam? The public realizing the shear scale of the sacrifice they were making, in a war they never should have been in. Despite the example of that war, the American Government choses to enter another similar conflict again. To remain in Iraq, they need public approval. Since the beginning of the war they have been actively trying to avoid any mention of the casualties. Press are not allowed at the airport when the flag-draped caskets arrive home, and have you seen any pictures of the military funerals? Why did the headlines stop? Things are not going well and the casualties are mounting. There is increased pressure to "bring the boys home" and therefore more censoring on the press.
Despite not agreeing with the war, I do agree that we need to remember the sacrifices the military men and women make. As Michael Moore said in Fahrenhiet 9/11, it's a task that we don't want to do, and they perform without asking much in return.
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