CNN, Vultures and War Dead

"... The idea that horrors are required to give zest to life and interest to art is the idea of savages, men of no experience worth mentioning, and of merely servile, limited sensibilities. Don't tolerate it." George Santayana, Letter to G. Lowes Dickinson, 26 November 1913

I had to let this whole CNN insurgent sniper video controversy percolate in my mind for a few days before writing about this. First, let me say I am an absolute, no exception freedom of the press person; that means if journalists can find the information they have a right to print/air/blog it. Period. Second, this has nothing to do with whether or not you support why we are at war. As the man said, you can't TiVo history and our troops are there.

Then there is the subject of responsibility.

On the Anderson Cooper blog CNN and its defenders raise a number of reasons why the footage, "subject to hours of intense editorial debate at the highest levels here at CNN", aired:

• We, as Americans, need to know how our military personnel are being killed in Iraq;
• We need to see "the other side" of the story;
• Americans need to be aware of what is going on in Iraq and;
• We need to know what our troops are going through over there.

First, leave it to CNN to assume we don't know how people die in wars. Just to put their minds at ease, let me assure them the majority of Americans know our solders, sailors, airmen and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan don't die from hangnails, pinkeye, shingles or bleeding gums. Further, those who do not know that are so goddamned stupid they deserve no, I mean zero consideration in the "intense debate" about how news is covered. In fact, I seriously doubt the aforementioned intellectual potted plants watch CNN or any other program that is not broadcast on the Cartoon Network.

Next, what the hell are people saying when they mention the "other side of the story?" You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a TV, newspaper or magazine announcing the number of American deaths in Iraq. Now let me digress on that a minute. I am not at all minimizing the deaths of Americans, Iraqis or anyone else, with the exception of the terrorist bastards blowing up schools and markets filled with civilians; I could care less how many of them are killed or the method. If they are targeting civilians or shooting at our troops, kill them.

Now some comparative numbers:

• Korea: - 1950, 1951 and 1952: U.S. Killed: 32,964
• Vietnam - 1967, 1968, 1969: U.S. Killed: 34,550
• Iraq - March 19, 2003 to October 23, 2006: U.S. Killed: 2,799

Total combat deaths for the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter in Korea exceeded 3, 600. Wounded in Korea were over 100,000 or an average of about 33, 300 per year. Wounded in Vietnam were over 150,000. If you assume the battle of the Ia Drang Valley as the beginning of major combat operations that comes out to about 21,500 wounded per year. Nearly as many American's died as prisoners of war in Korea as have died in Iraq so far. The survival rates for wounded in Iraq is over 90%. It is NOT discounting deaths to tell "the other side of the story" or "the unvarnished truth" about casualty rates and how they compare to past wars. It just does not fit the CNN agenda.

Yes, I said agenda. If you do not think CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, reporters and bosses have an agenda when it comes to the war in Iraq, you have lost contact with reality or are intellectually dishonest no matter what side of the war you're on.

CNN, Anderson Cooper, et al can wrap this in terms of imparting information all they want and excuse it by seriously intoning the heated debate had before airing the video. It told us nothing we already did not know, served no legitimate news function and they are now propagandists on behalf of those killing the young men and women they feign to care so much about. I know the CNN Vultures will still sleep well tonight and that's what is most disturbing.

Books by George Santayana