You Wouldn't Think We Are a Country at War

I recently saw this status on Facebook: Lindsey Lohan who? I cant believe the news coverage being given to a spoiled 20-something yr old. Here are a few 20 year-olds worth knowing about: Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matt Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, & Sheldon Tate 27. These 20-somethings gave their lives for you this week. Repost if you support the Military!


Sadly, it is so true.

You wouldn't think we are a country at war, especially if you tuned in to our news.

We have days of unimportant coverage on Lindsay Lohan, a mis-behaving movie "star" who is surely some role model we should pay attention to. Note: the previous sentence was to be read with a laaaarge dose of sarcasm.

But it isn't just her. It is also stories on car chases, celebrity break-ups, weight loss secrets or whatever other nonsense that is somehow qualifying as "news" in today's society.

You wouldn't think we are a country at war.

Do you remember the last time you watched a report on the War on Terror? Or at least one that was longer than a 30-second sound-bite? Generally no.

A recent exception would be the General McChrystal/Rolling Stone uproar which the media was diligent in covering, probably because it seemed more like the hot-headed Hollywood behavior that they're used to.

You wouldn't think we are a country at war. 

We need coverage of it, namely of the men and women we're losing in it... on both sides.

Back in September of 2006, CBS ran a story where the lead line read: Now the death toll is 9/11 times two.

Did you see the date? That wasn't a typo: 2006!?! Nearly four years ago we had already doubled 2,973 which, according to that same article, was the total number of victims in New York,Washington and Pennsylvania in case you couldn't remember that number.

Other than around the month of September, particularly the 11th, it seems that our country doesn't remember that number or that incident. We're too busy soaking up the celebrity garbage that is taking over our news.

You wouldn't think we are a country at war.


And with as little coverage as the war gets, we don't even have a clear idea of the NUMBERS, whether we would choose to forget those or not.

The problem is, when I went searching for the death toll, it was hard to find, at least accurately. There is so much word play on this "War on Terror/Overseas Contingency Operation" that a ton of different numbers came up. For example, some of the rhetorical re-wordings included "violent" deaths, "attack" deaths, "in combat" deaths, "civilian" deaths, "contractor" deaths, etc. etc. etc.

You know what it boils down to? A whole lot of DEATH.

According to antiwar.com (forgive me for the obviously biased source), here is the most comprehensive list of numbers I could find:

Casualties in Iraq The Human Cost of Occupation Edited by Margaret Griffis :: Contact
American Military Casualties in Iraq
Date	Total	In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03):	4413	3491
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list)	4274	3383
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03):	3952	3185
Since Handover (6/29/04):	3554	2858
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09):	185	87
American Wounded	Official	Estimated
Total Wounded:	31888	Over 100000
Latest Fatality July 21, 2010
Page last updated 07/23/10 5:06 pm EDT That is only our side. And that is only Iraq; if you were to include Afghanistan, we are clearly well past the original 2,973. I know that is not the only thingwe are fighting for. Of course, we want to keep our country safe, defend our freedom, encourage democracy and peace, etc. However, at some point, all of that talk becomes just as rhetorical as the different ways to label death.  What it all comes down to is we ARE a country at war. People are dying. And what are we doing? Distracting ourselves with crap like Lindsay Lohan going to jail.  I think we need to re-set our priorities.  Who will your celebrity be? A girl who can't give up alcohol or a military man and/or woman who can give up his or her life?  ______________________________________________If you'd like to honor a military hero, check out these options.