4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images

[groovedaddy]

BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.

Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world. Mr. Miller has since left Iraq.

If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.

It is a complex issue, with competing claims often difficult to weigh in an age of instant communication around the globe via the Internet, in which such images can add to the immediate grief of families and the anger of comrades still in the field.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?th&emc=th

[FreedomFighter87]

1. With all do respect

The casualty rate in iraq is lower than any other war the US has been involved in in HISTORY..

4000 in 5 years.. Lets do the math.

At any given time since 2003 98,000 to 180,000 troops have been stationed in Iraq ALONE.

Lets just say that all the deaths occured in Iraq, which really isn't a realistic notion.. but for the sake of making my point... why not?

Of the total 600,000 troops who have been stationed in Iraq alone. Say... 4000 of them are killed in action.

The answer is a 0.006666667% Casualty rate..

People don't understand how important stabalizing Iraq is to the security of our nation, and all of our allies around the world.



I'm just wondering how many of you are enlisted in the armed services if you're so worried about troop casualties...