November 2004 was the deadliest month in Iraq for US troops

[wicket]

According to Lunaville:

http://icasualties.org/oif/prdDetails.aspx?hndRef=11-2004

136 dead in that month alone.

:(

[bowens43]

1. We didn't hear about this on the news.

We have heard of one or two deaths every other day or so. This averages out to over 4 deaths per day. Why don't we hear about this? Why aren't more people outraged?

[cali]

3. Sorry, if you didn't hear this on the news

you haven't been paying enough attention. They've been reporting the high death toll this month extensively. Blame bushco for their bullshit propaganda and the American people for their complacency.

[bowens43]

6. My piont is that the reports trickle in.

We have not seen reports of each of these deaths as they occur. They are reported as if they are isolated incidents. I am well aware of what is going on.

[cali]

2. Americans are paying no attention.

They've become inured to the drip, drip, drip of U.S. deaths, and they don't give a fig about Iraqi deaths. It'll take a Beirut moment before Americans even blink at the death toll. And I don't think we can place all the blame on the MSM. They've reported the high death toll for November repeatedly.

[bowens43]

7. The media IS to blame in the way it's presented.

It's reported as drip, drip, drip when in actuality it's a deluge. Hundreds of attacks daily. Many wounded. The death toll is being down played. During Vietnam we saw nightly scores on the tube. We saw body bags being taken off of planes. We saw wounded and dead American soldiers. Here we get little. Reporting 'high death toll' at the end of the month has much less of an impact the reporting dead and wounded , number of attacks etc every day.

[cali]

8. I've seen/heard numerous reports

on the wounded. And it's not the fault of the media that they can't film coffins and body bags. During the first 3 years of the Vietnam War, when the death toll was approximately equivalent to the current war, they didn't show much at all. That changed. Yes, the media could do more, should do more, but the bulk of the blame belongs squarely to the citizens of this country.

[wicket]

9. "the bulk of the blame belongs squarely to the citizens of this country"

Amen to that...

[bowens43]

10. I disagree completely.

The media is the lapdog of the administration. They INTENTIONALLY minimize coverage of anything and everything that casts doubt on the 'success' of the invasion and occupation. I find it troubling that you seem to be intent on placing blame on those who consume the news rather then those who should be reporting it. The propaganda is working.

[wicket]

12. the media definitely is not doing their job

Time to write some more letters...

[cali]

13. Don't agree

The media may not be doing its job properly- no doubt they should be doing more, but it's way simplistic to state that they're the lapdog of the adminsitration. They're corporatized, they're lazy, they need to be doing more, but the fact is that there's plenty of information about this hideous war; Americans just don't give a shit, and I'm sick of excusing them for supporting this corrupt administration.

[gratuitous]

11. Yeah, not everything is as important as the "Dean Scream"

How many times did CNN alone run that? Something like 400 times in a week? Even after they acknowledged that the "scream" was lost in the general hubbub of the room and was only captured because of the sound-isolating capabilities of the microphone Dean was using?

But 136 dead soldiers hardly compares, so it's pretty obvious why the news outlets can't waste precious, precious air time talking about something that's such a downer.

And you know, I wonder how many fatalities we would have sustained had the Fallujah offensive been carried out earlier? Probably still a lot, but with all the lead time in the build-up, timed to happen after the election, the defenders had more time to prepare and be a little more lethal. How many families are grieving their dead son/brother/father who might have survived had the Bush administration not subordinated military strategy to political expediency?

Oh well, I guess we can't expect the media to ask that question, either.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Virtually the same number who had died up till "Mission Accomplished."

But the numbers seem like background noise to most Americans now. Because it's incessant, it can't be heard. And they seem okay with this.

[cali]

5. One more thing:

Even here at DU, these threads about the death toll, plummet to the bottom in no time.