"only" 74 troops die in July; 73 Iraqis die 8/1

The manipulation of statistics to beef up and/or justify policy (propaganda) is insidious. Open the paper today, including the Times, and see all the only slightly reserved gloating about the death toll among Americans in June --"only 74" Odierno and others purr. Lowest this year! But of course, unmentioned is that it's actually on par with last July of 2006. Then, bam, 73 are already confirmed dead in one day in Baghdad, the day after the Parliament takes off for a month.

Our concept of "acceptable" death tolls for troops and "collateral" Iraqi folk grows ever more offensive but does point up the shameful slide in our morality, a new normal in indifference to death and suffering that's characterized this entire tragedy.

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Updated On: 8/1/07 at 01:04 PM

And not a single mention of Iraq and these deaths in the first hour of TODAY. Yes, the bridge is a tragedy, but yesterday the Sunni Faction quit the Iraqi cabinet and a blast killed 76 in the capital. And that news, by the way, was on page A9 of the "liberal" NY Times, folk.

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