Susan Benjamin: When war becomes background noise

When war becomes background noise

By Susan Benjamin
March 24, 2005

(snip)

Americans have responded to the news of the war in Iraq in much the same way. When the war began, Jessica Lynch became a hero by virtue of her capture and the vision of American contractors hanging dead from a bridge caused a collective shudder. We tallied the dead, injured and missing with abundant concern. On May 1, 2003, George Bush declared an end to major military operations in Iraq. The number of Americans fatalities had peaked to approximately 17 a month.

Since then, that number has shot up to an average of 82. As for the overall tally – here is a sample – you may know these already:

More than 1,500 Americans dead in Iraq.

More than 11,000 Americans wounded.

An estimated 100,000 Iraqis dead, depending on the source, many women and children.

As for the cost of the war: the bill now totals around $150 billion, cash that would fund a global anti-hunger campaign for six years and employ 2,703,491 teachers for one year, making the No Child Left Behind initiative a success. These numbers may have fueled public outcry, letters of protest, and immense political debate when the war began. Now, though, we hardly hear an utterance. Even the political landscape remains exceptionally calm.

Clearly, the stats have become background noise to our lives, an uncomfortable but remote static. Most Americans disagree with the president's handling of the war in much the same way we disagree with bad service in a restaurant. Besides, billions of dollars are billions of dollars – a vague amount reserved for discussions of the IRS and the mega-rich. As for the death and destruction? When I lived in the Mideast, every so often a Lebanese sheep herder wandered close to the barbed-wire border and shouted complaints about the misery inflicted by the civil war.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050324/news_lz4e24benjami.html

so is this why the RW is all up in arms about Terry Schiavo? If they can rally the base around "saving" this one woman, it will take attention away from killing (non-brain damaged) civilians in Iraq? Pretty smart stuff.