Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Iraqi deaths
I've covered this subject before (I'll skip the link), but today is a good chance for a reminder. In the news today, a car bomb in Baghdad killed 23 people and injured 68 others, while later, a second killed 17 people and wounded 55 others. Will you ever hear what happened to those 123 injured people (or the others who were injured in incidents where the numbers of dead didn't reach double-digits, and weren't even "newsworthy" by the standards of American reporting on Iraq)? Not a chance. Will some, maybe even the majority, die later today in the hospital, or tomorrow, or next week? Quite likely. But according to the Western press (and those such as Iraq Body Count), 40 people died in those two incidents, a number which will never change.
And once again I ask, when will a reporter again ask George Bush how many Iraqis have died of other than natural causes since March 18, 2003? Indeed, when will I even hear a reporter mention on the air (or in print) a number, even an inaccurate low-ball number, of the Iraqi dead?
