Today in London = every day in Iraq. But compare the coverage...

[BelgianMadCow]

Coming home, I switched on CNN (don't blame me, it's all i've got over here).

Under the banner "Breaking news", the reporteuse from London managed to mention "atrocities", "terrifying", "Islamist" etc more times in one sentence than is gramatically possible. She also tried her very best to extricate the horror and terror from a witness of one of the scenes, to no avail.

Dozens of innocent people are dead. A shame, a tragedy and the rotten fruit of the tandem's policies.

Dozens of innocent people are killed in Iraq every other day, but it isn't considered breaking news. If and when the human cost of the Iraq war is mentioned, it's always : killed soldiers, wounded soldiers, and "not to mention the Iraqi's". In that order, ALWAYS in that order. Even if the highest number, by far, comes at the end.

The way the US media will jump on the terra terra is gonna make me sick, again.

The number of killed Iraqi civilians is estimated at 22787 as of today.

Imagine if they were our fellow countrymen and -women.
Imagine if they died in a unilateral war of agression.
Imagine the outrage, and the cries for retaliation, swift and thorough.
It would become quite easy to find people willing to sacrifice their life to go and retaliate.

This war of choice will last forever, unless it is exposed for what it is.

But that exposure, crawling out from under the rug, or corporate media smokescreen, was just put back for as long as the media can run with this.

Once again, the goals of Bushco and the terrorists coincide. They are mutual parasites.

[slackmaster]

1. It's not as newsworthy in Iraq because it DOES happen every day

People around the world think of London as a safe city. But not Baghdad.

[Vincardog]

2. It is not newsworthy when it happens in Iraq because it does not serve the

Corporate Controlled Media's agenda to demonstrate the true costs of Bush's war.The American public would shrink in horror at the site of mutilated women and children that the Idiot Chimp is inflicting daily.

[BelgianMadCow]

3. Sad, but true. People just get used to it, and don't care anymore.

If we should be happy with that, is an entirely different matter.

In a terrible way, the news of today reminds us all that there may no longer be safe places. You could hope that this makes people realise the horror of every day for people born in the wrong spot.

but I know I'm a dreamer.

[meganmonkey]

5. But you're not the only one....

(dreamer, that is...my apologies to the late great John Lennon)

[Redstone]

4. It's because Iraq is full of Brown People, silly!

They can die and die and die, and it doesn't matter. Didn't you know that?

Our own Government told us that the civilian deaths in Iraq were simply not worth counting, so why wouldn't the news organizations go along with that concept?

Redstone

[BelgianMadCow]

6. Even though I'm a white boy, I do understand

Just add the voter suppression in Cleveland, Ohio
and remember who are the ones that have so little going for them that joining the military is the only way to get an education.

I see a theme here.

Did they REALLY say "not worth counting"? Must have missed that.

[Redstone]

8. It's true. One of our Generals replied to a question about civilian deaths

and said (closely paraphrasing his answer here): "Well, because we don't TRY to kill civilians, we don't think we're responsible for keeping track of how many we do in fact kill."

You could probably track down the original statement with ten minutes on Google.

It was one of the most nauseating things I've ever heard anyone say.

Redstone

[BelgianMadCow]

9. It was Helen Thomas of course, who asked the questions

<snip>

I asked Pentagon officials: ''How many Iraqis have been killed in this war?'' The answers were given ''on background'' -- meaning that the Pentagon spokesmen requested anonymity. The spokesmen were honest. They clearly were following orders from the policymakers when they replied that the Iraqi fatality toll was simply not our concern.

The reply to my first Pentagon call was: ``We don't track them (Iraqi dead).''

Weeks later I pursued the question and was told by a Defense Department official: ''They don't count. They are not important,'' meaning the casualty figures.

I later asked for an explanation of why there has been no attempt to find out the number of Iraqi war dead. A Pentagon officer patiently responded: ``In combat operations, we have objectives. We don't have an objective to kill people. Our objective was to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq.''

</snip>
Full article here

google is our friend

on 2nd edit :
<snip>
"I don't believe you have heard me or anyone else in our leadership talk about the presence of 1,000 bodies out there, or in fact how many have been recovered," Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the Afghanistan operation, said Monday at Bagram Air Base. "You know we don't do body counts."
</snip>
more

[Redstone]

10. Hey, thanks. I'm going to save that link for the next time

I need that information.

Redstone

[BelgianMadCow]

11. What looks like a shameless kick

is really just to say thanks to whoever nominated.
I'm amazed (and even more inclined than before to become a memeber after 4 years, if I ever get the money to DU without a credit card and from over here that is)

Interesting how you see posts without a lot of debate being nominated. Just goes to show that posts a lot of people agree on are being nominated instead of getting "I agree" replies.

Ans some of the more inflammatory posts getting little if any votes...

[BelgianMadCow]

12. self delete

server issues

[info being]

7. Are you kidding. That happens before breakfast in Iraq.

[MetaTrope]

13. Terrorism happens all around the world, all year round

For example, http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_99/appa.html

It's just coming home to roost now in its root cause, the first world nations that have sponsored and armed these low-level conflicts for a century.

[BelgianMadCow]

14. "home to roost" - I repeat myself : sad but true

My professional life is dedicated to finding the root cause.

I am only beginning to learn that the root cause of events lies in history, and that no one can make sense of the events of the day without a sense of what has transpired.

Thanks for the link.

Only a week ago, after heated political debate, did Belgium decide to retract an export licence for bullet production technology that we were gonna sell in the area of the Great Lakes in Africa.

We in the west, almost to no exception, are guilty.

[Disturbed]

17. When it happens to European Allies Amerikans are...

"horrified", "saddened", "heartbrocken" etc. When it happens in other countries, esp. ones that are not allies, there is barely a ripple. If 1K people were killed in Iraq next week on the same day would Amerikans react with "horrified", "saddened", "heartbrocken" etc.?

[BelgianMadCow]

19. I think not. But I am not sure of my own visceral reaction either.

I know how I felt on 9/11.
Far worse things have happened, ARE happening, elsewhere in the world.

Okay, maybe not as spectacular, but they are.

I don't remember having the same reaction.

We can only care about what we know.
We only know about what is close to us,
or what is brought close by the media
some things never are.

I've been to the US
I should get to Africa.

[Kraklen]

15. Today in London

<<< than Iraq

[baby_mouse]

16. I know, it's disgusting... n/t

:argh:

[spooked911]

18. Exactly!!!