Afghanistan, July 2012
August 8, 2012 at 12:49 AM by Dr. Drang
A month ago, some right-wing blogs noticed my last post in this series and decided that I was a kindred spirit. Which only goes to show how stupid right-wingers are.
The thrust of their argument was this: The news media doesn’t report on the casualty figures because they’re in the tank for Obama. They reported casualty figures during the Bush administration, but they won’t do it now.
Facts have never meant anything to the right, but I’ll point out a few anyway:
- I started writing posts like this in 2006 to complain about the lack of reporting on casualties in Iraq. If memory serves, this was during the Bush administration.
- There were plenty of news reports on casualties in Afghanistan when the figures jumped in 2009—during the Obama administration.
- All the major news outlets were cheerleaders for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in their early days. This was a major factor in the Republican success in the polls in 2002 and 2004.
- I complain about media coverage because I think the lack of reporting on the rising death count contributes to the US continuing a war that’s no longer justified. What do conservatives have to complain about? Except for the Ron Paul fringe, they fully support keeping our troops in Afghanistan.
So here’s the new chart for July 2012.
Coalition military deaths passed 3100, and US military deaths are likely to pass 2100 either this month or next. The networks and major papers ignore these figures because they think we don’t want to hear it (probably true) and don’t seem to care whether we need to hear it.
