4,000 WHOHOOO YEA! ALRIGHT! WE DID IT! NOT!!

[Thepricebreaker]

Guys lets stop pimping the death numbers.. It really looks that way...

I see at least 10 posts with 4,000 in it..

For some reason we love to post numbers that are "rounded"...

1 death, or 4,000 deaths its all the same...

There will be no news coverage.. There will be no investigations, and no impeachment.. nothing will change...

We can thank Pelosi and Reed for that... BLAME THEM! WE ALREADY KNOW BUSH IS A SCUMBAG..

Were is this "change" with our democratic congress??

I feel Obama is the only one that can really change this.. and turn it around...

[OzarkDem]

1. Its a very sad milepost, isn't it?

It has to stop, such a waste of human life. And yes, Pelosi and Reid have shown no leadership on this issue, they've done a lot of damage to the party's image as well.

[Olney Blue]

2. Scumbag is too mild a word.

[Skittles]

3. it is not a celebration

it is an acknowledgement

[MADem]

4. The sad thing is, no one fucking cares. It's not even the Top Topic anymore.

Once they get "four thousand" behind 'em, it'll be "just a number." The Democratic candidates are trying to link the economy to the war, but it's hard to tell if anyone's listening.

Don't shoot the messenger, thanks much. In my perfect world, we wouldn't be in Iraq.

Read: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5htooXlLbqgRly5-98zw66yePjBOw

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Americans mark the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Iraq war on Wednesday more concerned about the ailing economy than the future of the conflict in which nearly 4,000 US soldiers have died.

A collapsing home mortgage market, the falling US dollar and spiraling energy costs appear to have supplanted the dragging war effort in the consciousness of many Americans since the start of the US-led war.

The US military intervention until recently dominated US political life, and had been anticipated to be the major talking point of the current election campaign to choose a successor to President George W. Bush........According to a Gallup poll published in the USA Today newspaper, three in four Americans say they believe the United States to be in a recession -- even if the US government refuses to call it that, with a record number of bankruptcies and home foreclosures.

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24press.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1206332348-zqjZE6YznzevR2GT8GgErw


March 24, 2008
The War Endures, but Where’s the Media?
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Five years later, the United States remains at war in Iraq, but there are days when it would be hard to tell from a quick look at television news, newspapers and the Internet.

Media attention on Iraq began to wane after the first months of fighting, but as recently as the middle of last year, it was still the most-covered topic. Since then, Iraq coverage by major American news sources has plummeted, to about one-fifth of what it was last summer, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The drop in coverage parallels — and may be explained by — a decline in public interest. Surveys by the Pew Research Center show that more than 50 percent of Americans said they followed events in Iraq “very closely” in the months just before and after the war began, but that slid to an average of 40 percent in 2006, and has been running below 30 percent since last fall.

Experts offer many other explanations for the declining media focus, like the danger and expense in covering Iraq, and shrinking newsroom budgets. In the last year, a flagging economy and the most competitive presidential campaign in memory have diverted attention and resources.

“Vietnam held the media’s attention a lot better because it was a war with a draft that touched a lot more people; people were sent against their will, and many more Americans were killed,” said Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard.

“In a conventional war, like World War II, there’s dramatic change, a moving front line, a compelling narrative,” he said. But after the triumphal first months, Iraq became a war of insurgents vs. counterinsurgents, harder to make sense of, “with more of the same grim news, day after day.”

[frogcycle]

5. the saddest part

is that the 4 MIA are most certainly dead, so we really hit that meaningless "round number" a couple of days ago.
And four more were killed in Afghanistan over the weekend, bringing that to 488 plus three not-yet-confirmed-to-be-American "NATO forces" (but four werre killed by one IED and one has been announced - from Norfolk, Va)

The damned numbers keep marching up daily - roughly 1/day for the past several months, vs 3-4 at the worst - but they go up steadily, and all the papers go batshit over the number 4000 like it meant anything more than 3996 did or 4010 will in a week or so.

http://www.Zeitlangers.com

[better tomorrow]

6. This puts it in perspective...it was on another

thread here but I think it needs to be reposted in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3051738

[frogcycle]

7. and this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3051776

[better tomorrow]

8. do you think we'd all feel bad if they were all Blackwater folks?

just askin'