Nor Any Mention of the Dangerous World Situation these Conflicts have created as they Build More Hatreds towards Us and other So Called Western Nations, with all the Deaths and Destruction we have UnLeashed on The Innocents and their Countries!!
My 'Kudo's' to georgia10, over at Daily Kos with the below Diary and DeRosier, of the Times Union Blogs, for the Political Cartoon speaking the 1000+ words only a pic or drawing can!!
Priorities and Perspective
Allow me to introduce to you to Staff Sgt. Michael "Chad" Lloyd. His name is not John Mark Karr. He died recently while on foot patrol in Baghdad. His flight to the United States won't be in business class, and reporters won't scramble to sit next to him. His body's journey across the Atlantic won't be traced with flashy graphics or estimated time of arrivals. Flag-drapped coffins, you see, aren't as sexy as murder suspects.
Meet Trinette Johnson. Her name is not John Mark Karr. I doubt that her story will capture headlines in 10 years. Since returning from Iraq two years ago, she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. "She's not the same mommy," her children say. No one, save her troubled family, really gives a damn what she had to eat today, or how she's dealt with her pain these years. No one is asking "Who is Trinette Johnson?" and no one--especially not the press--seems to give a flying fuck that there are thousands of Trinette Johnsons out there, living (if you can call it that) with PTSD.
Meet U.S. Army Col. Dirk Spanton. His name is not John Mark Karr. He survived three tours in Iraq, only to come home and find out he has six months to live. Symptoms of his cancer were masked by the stress on his body in Iraq. No one, save those who have the honor of knowing him, are interested in the type of life he had growing up, the experiences that have shaped him into the man he is today.
Meet Sgt. Steven P. Mennemeyer. His name is not John Mark Karr. He joined the armed forces after 9/11, and was killed in Iraq in August. He was 26 years old and is survived by his young son. He earned 13 military honors, including a bronze star that was given to his girlfriend at his funeral. There's 19,100 Google hits for this fallen soldier. There's 9,530,000 for John Mark Karr.
Meet Pfc. Javier Chavez Junior. His name is not John Mark Karr. At just 19 years old, he married days before shipping off to Iraq, where he was killed. Seven others from his division were also killed, including Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar, who "left behind a poem for his family in the event of his death: 'I have given up many things for you to be free/Do not feel pity for me, for this is my choice.' I guess only ransom notes, not death notes, are worthy of wall-to-wall coverage.
Memo to the media: I. Don't. Care. About. John. Mark. Karr. Like so many others charged with a crime in our nation, he's presumed innocent and he will have his trial. I don't care about his childhood, or whether he asked for an extra pillow on the damn plane, or what color his jail cells walls may be. I don't care what he was doing in Thailand, no matter how many reporters you place "on location" there. I simply don't care.
Maybe our soldiers don't have big blue eyes and perfectly curled hair or the face of an angel. And, I suppose, in the conventional sense, their deaths aren't a "mystery." War killed them. Case closed.
But what is a mystery, a mystery that needs to be investigated, is just why we let the victims of this endless war pile up, month after month, year after year.
Or how about this great unsolved mystery: how can a room of so-called "journalists" sit back and yuck it up as the President makes light of war? How can they hear the President declare that we will stay in Iraq at least until 2009 without asking any follow-ups? And what mysterious ailment has turned the brains of these so-called journalists into a vast wasteland of nothingness, has rendered them incapable of uttering a single question of accountability, and has transformed them into vacuous stenographers of the Propaganda Presidency? Why this obsession with a single man who killed a single girl, yet no obsession with a three-year war set to kill 3,000 of our own?
That is the thriller, the unexplainable, the infuriating, and the gravest social crime. And that is a mystery that only the press itself can solve.
by georgia10 -- Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 02:39:35 PM EDT
And than we have this Diary of Reality and little or no mention, except for their families and friends, but just a number to the rest of us which we cannot even 'Honor' unless we search out their information of their lives:
Beautiful Dead Girls
by hrh
Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 11:19:05 PM EDT
We hear a lot about beautiful dead girls in the US media. Here are some that we haven't heard about much. Their smiles haven't been plastered over the supermarket tabloid press, and they're not likely to be. One of the reasons is that they don't fit the popular stereotype of beautiful-woman-as-helpless-victim. Another reason is that many people still haven't focused on the reality of women in the military. Even here on DKos, I see comments about "sons and fathers" who have been killed and maimed. Almost NO MENTION of women in the military.
Here, in no particular order, are some American heroes who were killed in combat in Iraq:
Army Sgt. Amanda Pinson, age 21, killed in mortar attack, March 15, 2006.
Air Force Airman 1st Class Elizabeth Jacobson, age 21, killed by roadside bomb, September 28, 2005.
Marine Lance Cp. Juana Navarro-Arellano, age 24, killed by small arms fire, April 8, 2006.
These are but three that the Diarist has placed with a few more photo's and very brief remarks on each.
We All should be asking the Question 'Why Are These Deaths Not Being Reported As Extensively, and Why Do We Know So Little About Each, if Anything?'!
Who, if anyone, will be charged with the killings of these young Beautiful Women, who Died Horrible Deaths in the service of their country, though with no definitive reason or 'Noble Cause'! In an Invasion of a Small Country that didn't deserve the Destruction and Devestation where thousands of their Military Comrades have been Killed and Maimed while Tens of Thousands of Innocent Iraqi's have Suffered Same!
Who should be charged, Those that sent them into an Illegal Conflict Based on Lies and Greed for Power and Wealth!
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