Keith asks why our mourning for the Americans who have died in Iraq...

[Fridays Child]

...is so muted compared to our mourning for the VT kids.

I anticipate that it will not be a popular question but I applaud him for taking the risk to ask it anyway. And, by the way, he acknowledged that our mourning for the students is appropriate.

[Cha]

1. Good Question...and why doesn't bush

go to the Soldiers' funerals?

[1620rock]

9. As someone pointed out yesterday, the VT mourning makes...

...for a better photo-op.

[Fridays Child]

10. Here's a screen cap of tonight's VT candlelight vigil.

Is there the popular will to hold one of these vigils every month for the lives lost in Iraq? Would the media cover them?

[Cha]

14. Oh yeah, bush is nothing if not a

selective mourner.

[babylonsister]

That is a great question. Why doesn't dimson mourn the deaths of

Americans and Iraqis?

[Cabcere]

4. Because he's a sociopath. n/t

[Fridays Child]

5. And this is precisely why he does not possess the moral authority to...

...lead this nation in our mourning for the students.

[JTG of the PRB]

2. I think it's a fair question...

...and I applaud Keith for asking it. One life is not more important than another; they are ALL important.

[malaise]

3. Profound

He brought tears to my eyes afterall way more than 30 American soliders have died just for April and today is the only the 17th. Not to mention the hundreds of Iraqis who have died this month.

[Spazito]

6. Why are the deaths of American soldiers merely a postscript

on page 6 or a runner at the bottom of the screen is a question the mainstream media should certainly answer given their over-the-top (imo) coverage of the tragedy of the VT victims. Covering the VT tragedy is appropriate, and so should be the deaths of American soldiers and the deaths of Iraqis, both covered with the same amount of concern, mourning, imo.

[ClintonTyree]

7. Soldiers know their lives are at risk....

it's an inherent part of their job. Students are supposed to be in a safe environment, learning. I'm not trying to diminish our soldiers deaths, but there is a difference.

That being said, "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee".

[Captain Angry]

8. Because the troops are so far away.

And it's only the liberal media who talk about their wounds and worse.

Death of any kind bothers me. These people in VA didn't ask for this. Our troops didn't ask for the bag of shit they got handed either.

[WiseButAngrySara]

11. I had earlier posed this same question on another thread...

If he's so serious about the dead, let him show our troops' coffins, and spend even a nanosecond of coverage on their heroic lives that have been lost because of him.

They have given their lives by choice, not being the victims of some random act of a madman, except that they were victims of madman B* himself. I have seen coverage of these deceased college students that has surpassed anything that I've seen about these brave young men and women who have given their lives for freedom. B* galls me to the very core of my being.

[Marrah_G]

12. Because soldiers know they are putting themselves in harms way

So yes it is different. I say that as the sister of someone over there. Someone who was over there in the first gulf war and Somalia. I mourn the death count everyday. I cry almost everyday for those families, but I also see and understand the grief and shock of 32 innocent kids being gunned down in class. As a family member of a service man or woman you know you might get that call or the knock on the door. As a parent you never once think your child is going to be gunned down by a crazy person on a rampage while in the classroom, that is, until you see it unfold before your eyes on TV. It tears away at the sense of security we are so fortunate to have. Most of the country is mourning the loss of safety rather then truly grieving for the individual.

Every innocent life is precious and for many of us each death cuts deep. But the reality is that when it hits close to home it is amplified, just as deaths in other places have more of an impact in their own communities. We can feel and mourn the victims of the Tsunami, but those who live there feel it more. We can grieve for the losses of Katrina and though we mourn, the people of the gulf coast feel it even more.

Maybe the best way I can say this is like this: My friend emailed this morning to say that his close, longtime friends son, Jamie Bishop (german professor), was killed yesterday, he knew the boy since birth and he was grieving. I was sad and my eyes welled up, I felt so bad for the family and for him. My friend on the other hand was not in good shape, he was hurting bad. And grieving even more are the boys parents, who will never be the same.

As for our soldiers, I think those who have lost loved ones grieve hard, those who have loved ones there grieve also, knowing that each soldier is a real person. The further detached you are the less you tend to feel the real grief. The more detached you are the less you see the body counts as real people. Fortunately here we have a DU community that sees each soldier as a person so we mourn more.

It's been a long day and I hope this post makes sense. I tried to put things in prospective as human beings, how things usually are rather then how they ought to be.

[Miss Chybil]

13. A few reasons...

And as an ex-soldier, as student and mother of a current Airmen I think I have a place to say this:

1. Soldiers sign up for the job of fighting wars. Whether they think they will ever really have to, or they are sent to war unjustly, doesn't matter. They are issued weapons and should be aware they may be called upon to fight.

2. Students sign up for an education. They go to school to learn and they're worried about the due dates on their papers, whether or not they will get into a certain program, and what they are going to do over summer vacation. They wear flip-flops to class and generally don't carry guns.

3. People expect soldiers, et. al. to die in wars.

4. People do not expect students to be die in class.

5. We have been hearing news of people dying in Iraq everyday for nearly five years.

6. We have not heard about students dying in class since March 2005. (Although, there have been many school shootings before and since then:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html )

[juno jones]

16. It has a strange echo to the

recent Seattle WU shooting. At least the guy did himself before doing anymore harm. I know people up here who knew the girl, so it's been a little weird already.

Granted, soldiers are risking their lives, but it goes farther than this. In a functioning society there are certain tacit agreements between groups in society that allow it to function. An agreement of trust and responsibility. This war is a betrayal of our troops. They made their agreements to defend this country, not to be played in a game of chess over oil, guns, halliburton, and creeping fascism. Always for the profit of a few.The same folks who brought you that other war we have obviously forgotten so well. Even those serving who buy the lies for the reasons they are there are just as betrayed as the soldier who understands the truth.

There is no difference. And * is the gunman with the biggest body count. That's why he had to be there today to give the eulogy. Fucking vulture.

[rocktivity]

15. Well, students aren't in business of killing while risking being killed.

On the other hand, death is the occupational hazard of all military personnel. It's not nice when a solider dies, of course, but it's not unexpected, either. In the case of the Iraq invasion, however, that's only half the story.

The main problem is the media's being under orders from the Bush white house to keep Iraq sanitized; to depersonalize it by suppressing the human cost. We don't see the funerals, we don't see the coffins, we don't hear the death tolls, we don't hear from the soldiers or their families (unless a Cindy Sheehan can climb over the radar). But we do hear accusations of treason and undermining when we ask why not. It's beyond thought policing--the national media is instructing us to love and hate at the pleasure of the president as well. Why is why Keith's what is doing on national television is such a godsend.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Matsubara]

17. I guess the assumption is that our Iraq dead volunteered...

...to go into that bloodbath, whereas the VT kids wer just goin about their business.

Of course the fact that our kids dying in Iraq have been mindf*cked by propaganda makes their passing no less sad. They actually believed they were going to be protecting their country...