One of the ways in which the media bolster their anti-Iraq narrative is by
maximizing the number of U.S. casualties. The figures you hear for the number
of deaths--currently approaching 4,000--almost always include noncombat
deaths. Roughly 20% of "Iraq war" deaths are from illness, accident, suicide
or other "nonhostile" causes.
By this standard, of course, every serviceman in Iraq is doomed, and so are
the rest of us. Even for those who perish in combat, war is only the proximate
cause of death.
A striking example of "Iraq war" deaths that weren't appeared last week in the
New York Times:
The Department of Defense has identified 3,825 American
service members who have died since the start of the Iraq
war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans on
Tuesday:
CAMACHO, Anamarie Sannicolas, 20, Seaman, Navy; Panama City, Fla.;
Naval Support Activity.
GRESHAM, Genesia Mattril, 19, Seaman, Navy; Lithonia, Ga.;
Naval Support Activity.
The San Francisco Chronicle published news of Camacho's and Gresham's deaths
under the headline "U.S. Toll in Iraq," and the text said they had died "in
Iraq."
This is false, as the Chronicle's own Web site confirms. The paper has a
database with details of all the deaths "in Iraq," and both Camacho's and
Gresham's entries show that they "died Oct. 22 in Bahrain during a non-combat
related incident." (Nonetheless, the heading on the Chronicle's database pages
reads "Portraits of Sacrifice: U.S. Casualties in Iraq.")
To find out how they died, we turn to the Gulf Daily News, an English-language
Bahraini paper:
Anamarie Sannicolas Camacho, 20, and her colleague Genesia
Mattril Gresham, 19, were shot dead at the Naval Support
Activity Base, Juffair, at around 5am on October 22.
Their alleged killer, fellow serviceman Clarence Jackson, 20,
is still clinging to life after apparently shooting himself
in the head immediately after the murders.
He is now at the National Naval Medical Centre in Bethesda,
Maryland, US, after being transferred to the US from a
specialist hospital in Germany. . . .
[Camacho's mother, Jovie] Paulino, who served in the US Air
Force for six years, is also angry at the way the navy have
handled the shooting.
"I had entrusted my daughter to the navy when she joined and
this is what has happened, I just don't understand," she said.
"I was in the military and right now I feel so angry and
disappointed. She put her life on the line for our freedom
and the only thing they should do (in return) is protect her."
Her comments echo that of Ms Gresham's mother Anita, who
earlier blamed officials for leaving her daughter exposed to
danger from a man she said turned nasty when she tried to
cool their "casual" relationship.
Ms Gresham revealed Jackson had a restraining order against
him and had been on suicide watch, after he allegedly attacked
Miss Gresham less than four months ago.
She was also angry that Jackson was allowed to carry a gun
after his alleged attack on her daughter and that officials
were not telling her what happened in the run-up to the killings.
If Jackson dies of his wounds, will the Times and the Chronicle list him as
another casualty of the "Iraq war" rather than of his own twisted rage?
The incident does illustrate an uncomfortable truth: that romantic
entanglements can be harmful to military discipline. This is why servicemen
can be prosecuted for adultery, and it is one reason that the military
excludes open homosexuals and restricts the roles in which women may serve.
This was a horrific and senseless crime. Imagine how disruptive it would have
been in a combat unit.
--
The trouble with American journalism, in short, isn't that it's too
skeptical, but that it's too willing to throw skepticism to the wind when it
suits the agenda of proclaiming every war a Vietnam and every Republican
president a Nixon.
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