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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Friday, May 05, 2006

3 more voted off American Idol

No, not really, I have no idea. I just thought that headline might gain a little attention for the three men who lost their lives yesterday serving in Iraq.
BAGHDAD, May 5--A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad on Friday morning, U.S. military authorities said in a statement.
It seems to be a pretty slow news day. What does it mean when three US soldiers dying in Iraq doesn't even get a mention on the news anymore?

My guess would be that the media has slipped into a malaise in their coverage of the war, that as no changes in policy or resolution of the situation seems to be coming, they've decided that there is no story there. But these are people, real people. Americans dying in Iraq, and we seem to have shifted to covering their deaths as an increase on a tote board.

I think Josh Marshall may have found a very good description of the current policy.
describes the president's strategy as "muddling through the rest of the Bush Presidency, without being forced to admit defeat, until January of 2009, when the war will become a new President's problem."

This really is the issue. Brazen it out, burn off men and money, not admit there's any real problem and then pass it off on the next guy who will take the blame.


Now, that's a story. A US president stalled in a war, consigning the country to another thousand deaths because he doesn't want the failure on his record. Think about how many more are going to die in two years and eight months, how many more deaths won't be covered.

(oh, and by the way, the tote board says 2,415)

5 Comments:

  • Good header Mike, good point. Although I expect most people are more connected to the fantasy of 'reality' TV.

    By Blogger Cartledge, at 9:35 AM  

  • Did you see Reickhoff on Colbert? Reickhoff was a Platoon leader around the time of "Mission Accomplished" and has a new book entitled "Chasing Ghosts".

    He said that there is a lot more important things than Brad and Angelina.

    Colbert wished him luck on his next redeployment, which was about as stinging as your great headline.

    By Blogger Bravo 2-1, at 10:45 AM  

  • Yeah, I saw it. That must've planted in my brain. What set me off last night is that I was flipping around last night during a commercial and came across Foxnews and Scarborough both discussing American Idol.

    I don't know, it just set me off.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:32 PM  

  • It reminds me of a couple of guys who once worried about becoming "the first U.S. president to lose a war."

    Their names were Johnson and Nixon, and they'll be remembered by my generation as killers. Bush has hitched his wagon to their star, and it's a supernova.

    By Blogger Motherlode, at 3:05 PM  

  • Yeah, good point. Very similar. When you think of Johnson, that's the first or second thing on the list with the kennedy assassination. Of course Nixon found a way to push vietnam further down the recollections of his legacy.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:34 PM  

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