Raid in Iraq that Killed at Least 17 Civilians Goes Unreported by American Media
Coverage of Iraqi Deaths Has Gone Almost Completely Unreported Since Beginning of the War
The US military has not commented on these killings, and no major US news outlet has reported on them either. When typing in a Google search stating "US Kills 17 Civilians" the only news references refer to the Al Jazeera article as their main source. On the Internet, there is a little more coverage, but it is sparse. The news has been obligated to the realms of blogs and forums where people's opinions on the matter can sometimes hardly be considered qualified.
Unfortunately, this has been a trend for the American's news media since the beginning of the war. While there are some reports of civilians deaths reported, such as this CNN article from 2006, it is not something that most American's are aware of. While the CNN article showed how over 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2006, an average of 94 deaths per day, that shocking news was almost disregarded. Why is this? Why are Americans not shouting at the top of their lungs at the outrage of women and children being killed? While I examined this concept in an earlier article, it is something that has been affected by our news coverage.
American's get their news from major news outlets such as CNN, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC and major Newspapers that rely heavily on the Associated Press and Reuters for their International News coverage. When those companies don't report on the number of civilians who have died, why should Americans care about it? A good majority of Americans probably have no idea how many civilians have died, and that they are continuing to die each and every day in Iraq. Unfortunately, a good majority of the Muslim world does not follow CNN and Fox News, but they do follow Al Jazeera, which has become a major influence in how news coverage is broadcast in the Muslim world. When Al Jazeera reports that the US killed 17 civilians, the rest of the world looks at America as a brutal regime that is trying to impose its will upon Iraq and their hatred of America increases. Americans read that the US Army killed 25 militants/terrorists and think that we are helping the situation and making things better. Is it any wonder why Americans don't see eye to eye with the rest of the world?
As for the total number of deaths in Iraq, it is hard to calculate. The US Army is not keeping track of how many civilians are being killed during the war, and unfortunately, the sources in Iraq for reporting of deaths was sparse at best, but has improved as of lately. One site, Iraq Body Count, has tried to create some sort of database to keep track of civilians deaths caused by the war. They look at hospital reports, media reports, morgue counts, NGO figures and official figures. Through their analysis, the total number of deaths caused by the Iraq war is anywhere between 74,837 and 81,556 as of October 10th, 2007. Other studies, as reported by the Washington Post, have claimed that over 655,000 civilians have died as a result of the war. This figure was an estimate that was the result of extrapolating a study of 33 cities in Iraq and expanding that result nationwide. This study was one of the few that got the attention of the US media, but it was mostly cast aside as a ridiculous study that was done very poorly.
So, the majority of American's have only looked at civilians deaths as being overly hyped or they are ignoring them altogether. The result of the air raid on October the 5th was not just a success in the killing of 25 militants; it was also a tragedy that claimed the lives of at least 17 Iraqi civilians that are just trying to get their lives back in order. If America wants to change its image around the world, it should start paying attention to the way the world reports on America, instead of the closed version that has been reported by our major news outlets.
References:
No Author Cited; US Kills '25 militants'; BBC News
Hamid Ahmed; U.S. Says It Kills 25 in Iraq Battle; Associated Press.com
Paul Tait; U.S. military says kills 37 Iraqi militants; Reuters.com
No Author Cited; US raid in Iraq kills 'civilians'; Aljazeera.net
No Author Cited; 34,000 Iraqi civilians killed in 2006, U.N. reports; CNN.com
Travis Dahle; Are U.S. Deaths More Valuable Than Other People's Deaths; Associatedcontent.com
Hamit Dardagan and John Sloboda; Iraq Body Count; Iraqbodycount.org
David Brown; Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000; Washingtonpost.com
Published by Travis Dahle
I am a teacher and debate coach in Sioux Falls, SD. I am interested in Sports, Politics, World & National News, Music, and Economics. I do research every year on several topics for debate and love debating... View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentI find it interesting to that you would down someone because of using Al-Jazeera. I have always felt that we as Americans need to look beyond CNN or Fox or any American news sites. I regularly look to BBC, the International Herald Tribune, Al-Jazeera, etc. to get a different perspective. I'm curious, what beef do you have with Al-Jazeera? Is it because they are Muslim? If not why? Just curious, and thanks for the comments everyone. I appreciate it!
Seriously, that is a pretty poor reason to down someone. What justifies you in downing someone because they use a source such as Al-Jazeera? Is it just a bias that you have or do you have legitimate reasons to give that rating. I think it is pretty childish to rank someone's article low because of a source they cited. I guess Travis was right in his comments that he upset people with his article. I guess the Iraq war is that divisive of an issue.
ha ha Sorry, forget al-Jazeera. As long as that's cited as a source, the article gets as low a rating as it deserves.
Thanks Alfonso, yeah, I must have made a few people mad or something...oh well. Thanks for the comments.
I don't know why your article has been rated so low in the rankings-this is a very good piece of work and reporting, I wish that associated content would put more relevant social issues on the front page more often. The problem with the present reporting on the war has a lot to do with our present administration, you have two sides of this war. Of course there is more or less not reported honestly-not due to the press negligence, but more-over the complexity of the war itself.