American deaths as "meanwhile"

I recognize that I write sloppily sometimes, and sometimes I write too quickly, but this....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bitter rivalry between two powerful clans for leadership of Iraq's Shiite Muslims snarled efforts Tuesday to agree on the next prime minister, the key issue that is blocking a national unity government. Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers, including three killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing north of the capital.

Five US soldiers died and they've reported it as a backstory.

Have we become desensitized? As there is to be no change in plans, policies, or strategy for the foreseeable future, are the soldier's deaths being deemphasized because the sorrow is incovenient and unresolvable? I'm not alleging conspiracy here, but instead denial on a cultural scale.

We don't talk about it anymore because it's awful and it's not going to change. (Like racism, poverty, the environment....)