Think Again: No Iraq News (Still) Isn't Good News

[ProSense]

Think Again: No Iraq News (Still) Isn't Good News:

The decline in emphasis on violence in Iraq doesn’t square with the events on the ground. The number of Iraqi civilians killed increased from the year before to 16,232, up from 12,371. But reporting on the lives of ordinary Iraqis accounted for only 5 percent of the 2007 “newshole.”

Last year was also the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq since the invasion, with 899 killed. The military attributes this increase directly to the surge that was heavily covered by the media in the beginning of the year. Yet the same newspapers that wrote about the surge over 1,300 times in January mentioned it only 410 times in December. Why not cover the results of this strategy with as much vigor?

One journalist polled in the survey offers the following explanation: boredom. “The greatest tragedy of the war has been how the media has in some way bored its audience with the violence.”

But is the public really “bored” with accounts of violence in Iraq? That’s unknown, and perhaps unknowable, since news organizations are so reluctant to invest in the coverage to prove it one way or another. As my Media Matters colleague Eric Boehlert noted, ABC News’s “Nightline” recently ignored Iraq every night for 18 straight weeks, while it found the time to report on such crucial stories as twin skateboarding stars, “Frenemies,” Couchsurfing.com, and pole dancing as exercise, just to pick four.

Declaring Victory:

The weird thing about the surge is that it's failure has been much more unambiguous. The theory behind the surge was clear. Some people said more troops would bring more security to Iraq. Critics of that idea noted that sending more troops would be logistically unsustainable. Surge theorists posited that a temporary increase in force levels would create a temporary increase in security that would open window of opportunity for political reconciliation that would allow for a permanent increase in security. So the surge was implemented. As of September, the surge had failed to generate the political reconciliation that would allow for a permanent increase in security. Surge supporters told skeptics we had to give it more time. Three months later, the surge has still failed to generate the political reconciliation that would allow for a permanent increase in security.

Further key features of the 2007 civilian death toll:

• The most violent 12-month period in Iraq’s recent history extended from July 2006 to June 2007, with 29,625 to 31,852 civilian deaths recorded.
  
• Trends from mid-2007 onwards show monthly violence levels on the decrease.
  
• Since March 2007 every month has seen more civilian deaths outside Baghdad than inside it. This has never happened before.
  
• Per-capita,3 the five most violent governorates in Iraq during 2007 were:

1. Diyala, at 255 violent civilian deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (up 29% from 197/100k in 2006)
   
2. Baghdad, at 164/100k (down 39% from 267/100k)
   
3. Anbar, at 122/100k (up 61% from 76/100k) 4
   
4. Salah al-Din, at 120/100k (up 26% from 95/100k)
   
5. Ninewa, at 100/100k (up 143% from 41/100k)

[rodeodance]

1. BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US soldiers have been killed in Iraq,

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Three US soldiers killed in Iraq
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3123475#3123475
3123475, Three US soldiers killed in Iraq
Posted by Barrett808 on Thu Jan-03-08 02:04 PM

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the US military announced on Thursday, making them the first American casualties of the new year.

A military statement said two soldiers were killed in a small-arms fire attack while conducting operations in Diyala province on Thursday. Another soldier was wounded.

A separate statement said another soldier was killed when his foot patrol was struck by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad on Wednesday.

The latest deaths bring the total number of American soldiers killed since the 2003 US-led invasion to 3,905, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080103/wl_mideast_afp/iraqustoll

[tabasco]

2. Republicans are inherently short-sighted.

They have been screeching about the three-month lull in the violence as if it was VE Day and the bad guys had surrendered.

Sadly, as a combat vet, I know their celebration is premature.