From Iraq casualties to health care to evolution, these are the issues that should have received more attention from the media in 2004
ELEANOR CLIFT
American casualties in Iraq: Supporters of the war cite the relatively low number of U.S. military fatalities (now around 1,300) compared to the 58,000 deaths in Vietnam. But coverage rarely focuses on the wounded, whose official number is close to 10,000. If you include those who have developed mental disabilities as a result of the stressful urban warfare, the rate of injured climbs to more than 30,000.
Civilian deaths in Iraq: The U.S. military doesn’t keep count of “collateral damage,” but a report by researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins indicates that 100,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the American invasion. Supporters of the war say that’s an exaggeration, but even if it’s only 10 percent accurate, 10,000 innocent Iraqis lost their lives in the cross-fire between their countrymen and an invading army.
Stress and strain on National Guard and Reserves: John Kerry called the Pentagon’s reliance on these part-time soldiers to fill out the U.S. presence in Iraq a back-door draft. Forty percent of the 150,000 troops serving in Iraq are Guard and Reserves. They’re not youngsters, and interrupting their lives entails enormous social cost that will take its toll in failed marriages, children left behind, stalled careers and reduced productivity.
Cost of the war: John Kerry was accused of exaggerating during the campaign when he said the war cost $200 billion. George Bush waited until after the election to ask for more funding and Congress is anticipating another “supplemental” budget request when it assembles next year. The cost of the war is now well over $200 billion and counting. Yet Bush wants to make his tax cuts permanent, making him the first wartime president to cut taxes rather than raise them to pay for his war.
The new air war in Iraq: The story, buried on page A28 of The Washington Post earlier this month, was that the Air Force would increase the number of cargo flights into Iraq. A hundred soldiers a month have been dying on the truck convoys supplying the troops. Air power is a safer way to wage war, but the switch concedes the loss of control on the ground. It’s hard to win a war if the enemy controls the roads and the countryside.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6750387/site/newsweek/Continued >>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6750414/site/newsweek/The winner is....
The dominance of right-wing media: It’s a food chain to die for—first Drudge, then Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, then The Wall Street Journal. When they get hold of a story, they can make it a blockbuster. Going into the Christmas season, they made the word “secular” sound worse than liberal. When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the “holiday tree” in Rockefeller Plaza and not the Christmas tree, he was accused of being a secularist.
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