[antimedia] antimedia: One of my faithful readers tipped me off....

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Posted by antimedia:
One of my faithful readers tipped me off....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1167890037.shtml


   ....to [1]this story in the NY Times. Filled with apprehension, I
   loaded up the page, visiting the Times for the first time in quite a
   while. (I generally don't enjoy self-abuse, so I avoid reading the
   Times as much as possible.)
   The impetus for the article was the "grim milestone" of 3000 dead in
   Iraq. (At this rate, we'll equal D-Day in just a few more years!) It
   begins thus (and for the record, I'm excerpting, not quoting in its
   entirety)

     Jordan W. Hess was the unlikeliest of soldiers.
     He could bench-press 300 pounds and then go home and write poetry.
     He learned the art of glass blowing because it seemed interesting
     and built a computer with only a magazine as his guide. Most
     recently, he fell in love with a woman from Brazil and took up
     digital photography, letting both sweep his heart away.
     Specialist Hess, the seventh of eight children, was never keen on
     premonitions, but on Christmas of 2005, as his tight-knit family
     gathered on a beach for the weekend, he told each sibling and
     parent privately that he did not expect to come home from Iraq.

   Obviously the Times hasn't met many soldiers if they think Hess was an
   "unlikely" soldier. (Of course, the implication is, most soldiers are
   dumb brutes. Hess was the startling exception to the rule.)

     On Dec. 4, Specialist Hess slipped onto the ever-expanding list of
     American military fatalities in Iraq, one that has increased by an
     average of more than three a day since Oct. 1, the highest
     three-month toll in two years. On Sunday, with the announcement of
     the death in Baghdad of Specialist Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring,
     Tex., the list reached the somber milestone of at least 3,000
     deaths since the March 2003 invasion.
     The landmark reflects how much more dangerous and muddled a
     soldierâs job in Iraq has become in the face of a growing and
     increasingly sophisticated insurgency. Violence in the country is
     at an all-time high, according to a Pentagon report released last
     month. December was the third deadliest month for American troops
     since the start of the war, with insurgents claiming 111 soldiersâ
     lives. October and November also witnessed a high number of
     casualties, 106 and 68 respectively, as American forces stepped up
     combat operations to try to stabilize Baghdad.

   Have you noticed that for three years now we've been facing "a growing
   and increasingly sophisticated insurgency"? (No mention of Iran's
   contribution to the problem. No mention of the thousands and thousands
   of dead insurgents. No mention of Al Qaeda terrorists coming from
   literally everywhere to die in Iraq at the hands of our highly skilled
   warriors.)

     In many ways, the third 1,000 men and women to die in Iraq faced
     the same unflinching challenge as the second 1,000 soldiers to die
     there â a dedicated and ruthless Iraqi insurgency that has
     exploited the power of roadside bombs to chilling effect. These
     bombs now cause about half of all American combat deaths and
     injuries in Iraq.

   (Note to editors: just over [2]one third of all US deaths have been by
   IED. That context would have been nice.)
   Then there's this odd bit.

     Over all, the casualty rate has remained relatively steady since
     2005, dipping only slightly. It took 14 months for the death toll
     to jump to 2,000 soldiers from 1,000. It took about two weeks
     longer for it to rise to 3,000 from 2,000, during the period
     covering Oct. 25, 2005, to this week.
     âIt is hugely frustrating, tragic and disappointing that we canât
     reduce the fatality rate,â said Michael OâHanlon, a military
     analyst for the Brookings Institution.

   So the fatality rate has been steady and decreasing, not increasing as
   the Times would have us believe (remember that "growing and
   increasingly sophisticated insurgency"?), but that's cause for alarm
   because, dammit, we should be able to suppress the violence in Iraq
   while suffering fewer casualties. (Besides, we have to ignore [3]the
   fact that we lost 848 in 2004, 846 in 2005 and 824 in 2006. I'm not
   sure, but I believe that's a decrease, isn't it? Oh - did I mention
   that 69.8% of the wounded do not require air transport - meaning their
   wounds weren't bad enough to require evac?)

     Considering the intensity of the violence in Iraq this year, it is
     remarkable that the casualty rate did not climb higher, analysts
     and officers say. Long-awaited improvements in body and vehicle
     armor have helped protect soldiers, and advances in battlefield
     medicine have saved many lives. New procedures, like leaving wounds
     open to prevent infection, and relaying soldiers to hospitals
     faster than ever, have kept more service members alive. Troops now
     carry their own tourniquets.
     During World War II, 30 percent of all wounded soldiers died of
     their injuries, a number that dipped to 24 percent during the
     Vietnam War and then to 9 percent for the Iraq conflict. Though
     this is a positive development, it also means that more soldiers
     are coming home with life-changing injuries, including amputations
     and brain trauma. More than 22,000 soldiers have been wounded in
     Iraq.

   Rule #1. For every silver lining, there is always a dark cloud. Find
   it. Report it. Amplify it. Focus on it. The silver lining will fade
   away, trust me - editor.
   The rest of the article is filled with anecdotes that tug at the heart
   strings -- stories of the unpropitous nature of war -- the soldier who
   dies two days after arriving at the front, another who dies just days
   before ending his tour, yet another who dies in a quirky accident
   rather than enemy fire.
   The article closes with a poignant statement from an IED specialist's
   widow.

     âIt was hard, but he felt he was making a difference,â she said.
     âHe believed truly, that if he wasnât over there, they would be
     trying to harm us here.â

   Many of our wonderful servicemen and women believe the same thing.
   That's why morale remains sky high, despite the overwhelming pessimism
   of our media.
   Every story of the 3000 dead is valid and true, but the point is that
   for each of the stories of the 3000 dead, there are more than a
   hundred stories of soldiers who made it home safely, ones who
   experienced fortunate near misses and lived to tell about it, others
   who escaped without a scratch from seeming certain death. Their
   stories are no less valid, no less compelling yet much less told and
   certainly never publicly celebrated.
   To speak of the many living and of their many accomplishments might
   sully the sacrifices of the few dead, I suppose.

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/us/01deaths.html
   2. http://icasualties.org/oif/stats.aspx
   3. http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx