Larry Johnson: Now Do You Understand?

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21339


Now Do You Understand?
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-04-16 17:32. Media

By Larry C Johnson

Breaking news! At least 22 Virginia Tech students gunned down. Cable news channels are wild with activity as they pump up the coverage a focus on the latest "crisis". The media is commenting that this shooting is overwhelming the local medical facilities. Crisis is in the air. Well, at least it ain't Iraq.

Okay. Big deep breath. This is horrible and this is tragic and this gives us an idea of what it is like to live just one day in Iraq. Consider the following:

04/15/07 Reuters: 19 bodies found in Baghdad on Saturday

Police found the bodies of 19 people in various parts of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said

04/15/07 Reuters: 20 Iraqi troops and policemen abducted
A group linked to al Qaeda said it abducted 20 Iraqi troops and policemen and demanded the release of all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons, according to a Web statement

04/15/07 Reuters: 4 killed by suicide bombers in Mosul
Four people, including two Iraqi soldiers, were killed and 16 wounded when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside a military base in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

04/15/07 AP: Suicide bomber kills 5, wounds 11 in northwest Baghdad
a suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus in northwest Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, police and hospital officials said.

04/15/07 AP: 37 die as car bomb hits near Iraq shrine
A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines Saturday, killing at least 37 people, police and hospital officials said.
Let's total the score: at least 65 Iraqis dead in four attacks vs. 22 Americans shot at Virginia Tech. Whoops, forgot the 20 kidnapped policemen. Can you imagine?

The next time you hear Dick Cheney or George Bush blame the public attitude regarding Iraq on the media's failure to report "good news", examine carefully our reaction to the shooting at Viginia Tech. Look at our collective shock. Our horrified reaction. The public sorrow. Yet, in truth, this is an exceptional, unusual day in America. It is not our common experience. But we cannot say the same about Iraq.

The people of Iraq are living in a Marquis de Sade version of Groundhog Day. It is like the Bill Murray movie--the same horrible day repeated with some new, bizarre twists--only not funny. Multiple body counts and explosions and shootings are the daily experience of the people of Iraq. They have been living this hell for four years. Just keep that fact in mind as you mourn the deaths of 22 American students slain in Blacksburg, Viginia.

[butterfly77]

1. I do but a lot of freepers don't ...

unless it occurs in their backyard and sometimes not even then...

[NightWatcher]

2. Plus, how many of our troops are college aged

A lot of people go into the military in order to get a college education. I hear reports of 19- 24 year old soldiers that are killed on a weekly basis. I have not looked at a breakdown of "college aged" soldiers, but I'm sure that it's more than a few hundred.

Can we stop the killing of our kids, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Virginia?

[Delphinus]

3. If that was the only message we send,

"Multiple body counts and explosions and shootings are the daily experience of the people of Iraq. They have been living this hell for four years.", it would be enough. Whether it would penetrate the psyches of the media, I don't know, but those two sentences put everything into perspective (imho).

[raccoon]

4. A lot of Americans don't care how many Iraqis die. They're on the other

side of the world, a different race, and very likely a different religion.

That sounds terrible, but it's the truth.

[jwirr]

5. So very true, yesterday when I was younger this VA tragedy would

have been mainly local news and maybe once on the national news. The news about the nation would have been every national channel and even on some local newspapers and channels. The MSM has turned the entire idea of news upside down. Dumbing us down.

[butterfly77]

6. We can't even control the crime in our own country...

let alone Iraq's or anyone else's.

[northamericancitizen]

7. recommended nt

[Annces]

8. I am aware of the horror in Iraq

They live a daily nightmare, and our country is responsible for it.

[Roland99]

9. Screw you, Larry Johnson!!!

:mad:

People get upset when something affects them personally. The Iraq War has been a distant story to all but those of us who pay the deepest attention to it. No one in this country, except for the families of those deployed, has had to sacrifice for the Iraq War. Oh, we pay a few more bucks at the pump but that pales in comparison.

Now we have the largest mass murdering spree at a school in the history of this nation and we're supposed to discard this horrible tragedy like an Anna Nicole story?

I'm sorry but that ain't happening.

Today's tragedy is NEWS people. It hits home to everyone who goes to a college or university or has kids there and that's a number far larger than those directly involved with the Iraq War.


So to all those who think every freakin' news item on every freakin' news channel needs to be some negative news that would further move us to the leftie wet dream of a Bush admin impeachment, I say, "Screw you!"

[Darkhawk32]

10. I concur. This is not a media "distraction". It's real news and I hope the media actually

reports on it appropriately.

[Dhalgren]

11. You missed his point...completely...

[babylonsister]

16. Yep. Right over his head. nt

[Tesha]

30. People who throw around terms like "leftie wet dream"...

People who throw around terms like "leftie wet dream"
are often good at missing subtleties.

Tesha

[truebrit71]

35. No shit...

..:eyes:

[dicknbush]

14. That is why we must point out the pain that is felt today..

This is happening in Iraq every day and it is Personal to them and we have allowed ourselves to be numbed to the pain that our government is causing day after day after day! Use this as a lesson for all of us. Just imagine how the relatives of all those dead students fell today then transfer that to the Iraqi mothers and fathers all their dreams gone and pain for the rest of their lives. Sad but true.

[Bjorn Against]

20. You are missing the point, he is not saying the story is not news...

He is saying that they have this same type of news in Iraq EVERY SINGLE DAY. He is making us think about what a tragedy this event is and then making us think what it would be like if we had deal with something like this every day like the Iraqis do. He knows this shooting is a huge news story, and he is relating to another huge news story that people don't really think about the magnitude of.

[donco6]

21. No one's saying discard it.

Sheesh. All he's saying is, Imagine what your life would be like to have this happen day after day after day.

[brg5001]

29. Larry is saying that massacres are a daily event in Iraq

Larry made an outstanding point. Most of us weren't affected personally by the VT massacre, and yet all of the news comes to a standstill. We don't have freepers and other fascist talking heads lecturing the MSM on how they should "stop focusing on bad news" and instead "report on all the good things happening in Virginia today". No, this tragedy is getting a lot of airtime. Larry's not saying that the event isn't newsworthy, he's trying to awaken his readers to how it must feel to live with this every day in Iraq.

Each day in Iraq brings horror on just this kind of scale, and worse. Yet we're not supposed to pay attention to that, or we hear Bushco blame "the terrorists". Why haven't they blamed the VT massacre on "the terrorists" and waved their arms calling for a "war on terrorism"? Because this kind of violence is as senseless here as it is over there, and fighting it involves getting at some very intractable root causes that have nothing to do with sending in hundreds of thousands of troops. Sending the army to Blacksburg would accomplish as much in preventing campus shootings as it is doing to prevent civil war in Iraq.

(And what was that about a 'leftie wet dream' of a Bush impeachment? Impeachment isn't some kind of self-gratifying fantasy, it's our last, best hope of restoring a constitutional government.)

[springhill]

32. He didn't say it was media distraction...........

where on earth did you read that? And he also wasn't trying to play down the seriousness of the shooting. What he was doing, was pointing out to those who may not know that this does go on daily for those who love in Iraq. Please tell me, what is wrong with this message?

[JackRiddler]

34. Oh, but something a lot worse than what you are willing to admit...

"No one in this country, except for the families of those deployed, has had to sacrifice for the Iraq War. Oh, we pay a few more bucks at the pump but that pales in comparison."

The point that Larry Johnson didn't make explicitly but that I will clarify for you here is a lot more important. It's not about what people in this country "sacrificed" so that their government and all-powerful military could rape the people and destroy the nation of Iraq. It's that EVERYONE in this country has PARTICIPATED in the murder of those hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq, whom you consider remote and irrelevant. If you paid taxes to the US federal government, if you didn't raise protest, if you found rationalizations for the imperial invasion, if you find reasons now to keep up the destruction of Iraq, or if you are, as you maintain, simply apathetic about the murder done in your name, with your wealth: then YOU are an accomplice to this mass murder.

[peacetalksforall]

12. Keep an eye on the coverage by our media -

As we watch the coverage given and the concern they show for the families and students and all the analysis - think about the UN-COVERAGE of our soldiers. While Bush announced a promise to aid and assist the students and families - we hear plenty of stories and know for a fact that some of our soldiers who have seen this many people get taken do not get coverage. Going back, our government denies chemical exposeure and suffering from Gulf War 1. Mental or phsycial, what is George promising? Has he fulfilled promises to New Yorkers, yet? Has he fulfilled promises to New Orlean citizens, yet?

And what is the analysis from the media about continuing the war other than political?

Plus, soldiers are ordered not to talk?

Will students be ordered not to talk?

[MistressOverdone]

13. Gee, Larry

thanks so much for informing us with your moral and emotional superiority.

But I'm not going to view this tragedy through them. Death is death. Violence is violence. Comparing and contrasting is an exercise in futility, a total abstract.

And while our violence is not as condensed as in Iraq, there are mass killings here at least weekly, and every night the hospitals in our cities are full of young people killed by their peers.

It is all obscene.

[babylonsister]

15. I don't think he was diminishing what happened in VA; he's

suggesting a new lens to view Iraq through, now that this 'personal' tragedy is fresh on everyone's minds.

[springhill]

33. Boy, talk about overreaction.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Proportionately, 32 dead in 1 attack like 3 killed in Baghdad. Or 37 dead there like 400 dead here.

Proportionately, 32 killed in one incident in the US is like three being killed in Baghdad. Or looked at the other way 37 dead in an attack in Iraq would be 400 dead in one attack here. The biggest difference is that the "equivalent-of-400" happens several times a week over there.

[number6]

18. I Do Understand !

:kick: Damn right I do

recommended

1 vote

[H2O Man]

19. Severe,

harsh, and extreme. But a sadly needed message. Thank you.

[Riverman]

22. Thank you Larry for Pointing out this tragedy and putting it in perspective!

I am just as sickened everyday hearing on the news that horror happening everyday in Iraq - it is so mind and soul numbing! That a tragedy happens in the US is just as horrible and numbing! i can hold both thoughts and feelings in my brain and heart simaltaneously, as most human beings would who are not so innured to the pain of others. I am just as pained and feel helpless about the genocides going on in too many places on this planet - Darfur, Central Africa, etc.

I don't split hairs about who is slaughtered - whether they are Americans, Iragis or Haitians! Certainly, if I know a person or family who is directly touched by such tragedy, or my own family, has it has been, I will feel more intense feelings of loss and grief, anger and outrage! Of course - all human responses!

[GliderGuider]

23. This has been a widely repeated comparison today. I think that's a good thing.

Many people will have the opportunity to feel a macabre kinship with the trapped, helpless innocents in Baghdad. If any good can come from this tragedy, let it be that more and more people will rise up in fury and outrage and say "Stop the murder, stop this war on the innocent!" Let that be the memorial to these children.

[Karenina]

25. Indeed!

:kick:

[nam78_two]

24. K&R

Thank you for posting this.

[Theres-a]

26. Amen,sister.

[AngryOldDem]

27. I understand, Larry, and thanks for the lecture

I don't consider myself to be that myopic or xenophobic that I can't feel outrage at both Va Tech and Iraq. This thread (and the countless others like it here) makes me feel like I have to "pick a side." The ultimate effect to me is that it diminishes the carnage on BOTH sides.

[Karenina]

37. You STILL don't get it.

This is NOT about picking sides. It IS about realizing the magnitude of current events.

[cyberpj]

28. NO! Surely God cares more about American deaths, else why would he tell Bushy to decimate Iraqis?

AND ignore Darfur and the other brown skinned human tragedies (including our very own Katrina) during his watch?

:sarcasm:

[cascadiance]

31. I think the point would be, would we accept Anna Nicole Smith being headline news yesterday!

and relegating the VT tragedy to the second page? HELL NO! Americans would be crashing the gates of the media outlets and smashing stuff there!

But Larry's point is that we're doing that every day, when the media treats what's happening in Iraq as an afterthought, and we only do news based on it's "demand" and money making value. And it is an indictment on us for fueling that mentality by not paying attention to what is happening daily in Iraq both to our soldiers and to the Iraqis living there.

We need to elevate the tragedies in both areas and DO something about it. Have public outrage channeled into fixing both our own environment here to limit that sort of thing from happening in the future, and also make it paramount to get out of that war over there and fixing our relationships overseas! We can't continue to overlook things and then feel "trapped" later when a tragedy like VT happens. Allowing things like Anna Nicole Smith to be more important than other things like Iraq also makes us feel trapped when something like this here DOES affect us! Many now should have their view that the media coverage is "normal" in light of this and their feelings as to what happened yesterday, now that it is close to home and we can feel the pain on our doorstep. We should DEMAND an end to "distract-o-media"!

Now mind you, I'm not anti-Anna Nicole Smith as a person, but heck, she's one person when measured against many more here that suffered an even earlier end to their lives tragically, many through no fault of their own!

[countryjake]

36. kick

[butterfly77]

38. K...