Sunday, January 08, 2006

For six days I have been bombarded by relentless coverage of the 12 miners who died in West Virginia.

Fine. It's a tragic loss. Cover it and move on.

But no. In those six days we have been shown hour by hour reports of happiness turned to grief, what the miners ate, what they thought of before they died, how the doctors could have misdiagnosed, how the community is handling it, each and every memorial service, each and every public official make a statement, each and every friend and family member delivering each and every eulogy.

And the minute-by-minute update on the condition of the sole survivor.

On and on and on. CNN showed half a dozen special reports on the issue. And when they weren't doing that, they were epitomizing Ariel Sharon, the Butcher of Beirut, as a courageous man of peace for pulling out of Gaza while his fighter jets bombed the fuck out of it every now and then.

During that very same period, 30 US soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq - 17 in just one day.

More than 200 Iraqis were also killed in that period.

US generals reported the war was going terribly. Some warned of civil war. Others warned of the danger of the murderous Shia Badr and SCIRI militias.

And then another report comes out that the war will cost between 1 and 2 trillion dollars in real expenditure.

Nothing. These news items are buried beyond reach of the American viewer, reader.

Why?

Because the war has been a failure of morality, ethics, international law and a deep, wounding embarassment for the US government, US intelligence agencies, US think tanks, US proponents of the war, and the American people.

Why talk about how so many Blackhawks could be downed at the same time US officers say they are winning hearts and minds?

Why talk about how so many Iraqis can be killed in such an abject state of lawlessness when you were already told that the elections were a victory for Iraqis and all freedom-loving french fry eating peoples around the world?

Why discuss the real cost of the war at a time when Bush's first radio address of the New Year emphasizes the resounding improvement in the US economy?

Why talk of the Abramoff scandal when you have Bush and Rice tell you how Israel is your best friend?

Why talk of Netanyahu (the likely winner in Sharon's demise) as the greatest proponent of the Iraq war when people like Cheney and Coulter still get kudos for linking Iraq to 9-11?

"But we are talking about Iraq and we do care about Iraqis," say the befuddled stateside sheep pointing to the Baby Noor story.

That's the problem. US media, and the ignorant masses which continue to bankroll it, likes to focus on one story, one person. Baby Noor is now THE story of the hour.

We're saving her. We are good people. We invaded Iraq to save Baby Noor. See, had we not invaded her country or raided her family's home, she would be dead. See? See? Do you understand now how raping a country of its wealth and destroying its infrastructure is worth it?

I guess the two kids pulled out of the rubble, lifeless and limbless, thanks to a US air strike last week are jealous of Baby Noor just about now.

Or all the thousands of other children who died.

Nope, let's focus on Baby Noor, because it makes us feel like we fulfilled our Boys Scout honor code. Shhh ... sweep the rest under the proverbial rug.

In the meantime, the US military has quietly clamped down on military blogs (you'd think there would be something of this mentioned somewhere) and lowered the aptitude scores on its enlistment tests.

Great. Send more dumbed down youth who believe they will die for freedom in Iraq.

The Iraqi quicksand welcomes them.