Censorship in the Media

Originally I created this 'blog' because of MSNBC.COM. I have read their "Blogging Baghdad" page any time that they have an update, and check it frequently for updates on the comments. Some of the people there have fairly intelligent posts (even if I don't agree with them all). Then some others like to write in all caps as if that gets their point across better. MSNBC.COM has a policy that they will not post any comments that have vulgar language, or attack the comments of others. What they don't say is that they also arbitrarily decide not to post some things they don't agree with. (They put a few comments on so that it's not as obvious, but it happens.) There have been 5 posts I've made that never showed up.

I'm not the only person who has noticed this either. Their section is so liberal and anti-war it's almost comical, if we weren't talking about the lives of warm human bodies. In many of the comments, people refer time and time again about the recent 656,000 body count that was recently reported from a organization in the UK. Here is one of my posts that never made the page (that I attempted to post on 2 different threads a total of about 3 times over the span of 2 weeks).

"In regards to everyone who has said that there have been 600,000+ deaths in Iraq since the war began, here are a few things that you should ponder. Though the scientific method may be proven to work under normal circumstances, Iraq as we all know is anything but normal.

This report says that of those 656,000 deaths, they claim that 31% were caused by American soldiers (directly or indirectly). That means that in the past 3 years, the US military has been the cause of 203,360 civilian deaths (656,000 * .31). Or roughly 185 civilians a day. (203,360 / 1095). That leaves 452,640 dead from other causes. Or roughly 413 per day. (656,000 - 203,360 = 452,640 / 1095 = 413.36)

So that brings our grand total to 598 dead per day. Now thinking seriously, if our forces were responsible for 185 civilian deaths per day, don't you think that the media would jump all over that story, as they have with any other story that involved US troops killing civilians?

What I would like to know is this:

1) Who were they asking and where were they? Not some vague "47 districts", but where. If you go to Fallujah, or the slums of Baghdad, or Mosul and ask that question you will get vastly different answers than if you go to Kurdistan.

2) How many of these deaths were double reported? You have to remember how large and intermingled families in Iraq are. My girlfriend alone has 140+ first cousins. Her father is 1 of 14. If my uncle died, and you ask me how many people I know that have died, and then go and ask his son if he knew anyone who died, that death is reported twice. Due to naming structures in Arabic cultures, you can't even go by names to decide if it was a relative. My name could be Ibn Jeffery, Travis Al-Talab, or Abu Cha Chi, and all of those are correct.

3) How many of these numbers were not only double reported but just misreported? Maybe someone you ask hates America with a passion and says, "7 of my family have died!" When in all reality that number might be 2?

4) Look at the actual deaths reported by the media, even with a huge spike in violence recently, the number is still about 3000 a month. Using that inflated average, you still get 108,000 deaths over three years, a far cry from 600,000.

The study seems politically inspired and timed, but if you think about it rationally it just really doesn't make a lot of sense."

I'm not saying that it is peachy that even 108,000 have died, because honestly it breaks my heart that so many innocent people have been dragged through this. The casualties aren't just the dead, at least they have peace. The ones who live on have it even harder, they have to live without their loved ones, and live with the nightmares that come from being in a warzone. (Which for many of them, they are still trying to get over the nightmares from the past 40 years). What I am saying is that this report, much like the only headlines you see being "4 killed by roadside bomb" "7 bodies found in Baghdad" "3 coalition soldiers killed by small arms fire" are making America lose this war. Not militarily, but in the will of Americans to continue to stay true to our word.

The insurgents and "freedom fighters" and "Hizbollah mini-me's" all know that bombings and beheadings capture headlines and shake the public, and so they continue these tactics. The media is helping them by only showing this side of it, and not anything else that's going on.