It seems when we are the victims, its news; when they are it isn't. (Photo: Flickr/Asian Development Bank/CC)
Feb 25, 2019
A dry statistic emerged from the UN yesterday reporting that close to 4,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year. It estimated how many were victims of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and then attributed 951 casualties to the U.S. [1]
These are civilians we killed, and it isn't even news.
What is news and what isn't continues to mystify. It seems when we are the victims, its news; when they are it isn't.
Seventeen children were killed in the Parkland shooting. The US media had a blockbuster run on that story featuring it 7,900 times [2]
Nine people were killed in the Charleston church shooting and the story was wall-to-wall 24-7. [3][4]
But America's Afghan killing spree?
No way.
These were not "terrorists" or "militants," by the way, or any of the familiar categories we use to distance ourselves from our actions. These were regular, men, women, children, grandparents, aunt's, uncles, and cousins who succumbed to American bullets and bombs.
And there are surely many more than these, uncounted and generally unmentioned, in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Chad, Niger, Somalia, Libya; [5] the current list of America's killing fields.
Instead CNN seems utterly obsessed these days with getting U.S. humanitarian aid to hungry Venezuelans--starving mainly because U.S. sanctions are kind of starving them.
Strangely enough, liberal leftie, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fully supports America's war of liberation in Venezuela singing the same tune as right-winger John Bolton. How amazing that Democrats and Republicans hold hands on overthrowing a sovereign country, which legally holds a seat at the UN, and both enthusiastically support wannabe leader, Juan Guaido for President while the majority of Venezuelans never heard of the guy. [6]
I wonder what mysterious hunger brings Debbie and John to the same feeding trough?
Could it be that Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves in the world? [7]
Even more amazing, though, is how other pieces of news have trouble penetrating the fusillade of mainstream media propaganda.
Those 951 innocents may not ever get their due, but the corporate media will do everything in its power to urge you to try a large Papa Johns pizza and give Geico 15 minutes of your time.
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Jerry Kroth
Jerry Kroth, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor Emeritus from Santa Clara University and may be contacted through his website collectivepsych.com
A dry statistic emerged from the UN yesterday reporting that close to 4,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year. It estimated how many were victims of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and then attributed 951 casualties to the U.S. [1]
These are civilians we killed, and it isn't even news.
What is news and what isn't continues to mystify. It seems when we are the victims, its news; when they are it isn't.
Seventeen children were killed in the Parkland shooting. The US media had a blockbuster run on that story featuring it 7,900 times [2]
Nine people were killed in the Charleston church shooting and the story was wall-to-wall 24-7. [3][4]
But America's Afghan killing spree?
No way.
These were not "terrorists" or "militants," by the way, or any of the familiar categories we use to distance ourselves from our actions. These were regular, men, women, children, grandparents, aunt's, uncles, and cousins who succumbed to American bullets and bombs.
And there are surely many more than these, uncounted and generally unmentioned, in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Chad, Niger, Somalia, Libya; [5] the current list of America's killing fields.
Instead CNN seems utterly obsessed these days with getting U.S. humanitarian aid to hungry Venezuelans--starving mainly because U.S. sanctions are kind of starving them.
Strangely enough, liberal leftie, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fully supports America's war of liberation in Venezuela singing the same tune as right-winger John Bolton. How amazing that Democrats and Republicans hold hands on overthrowing a sovereign country, which legally holds a seat at the UN, and both enthusiastically support wannabe leader, Juan Guaido for President while the majority of Venezuelans never heard of the guy. [6]
I wonder what mysterious hunger brings Debbie and John to the same feeding trough?
Could it be that Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves in the world? [7]
Even more amazing, though, is how other pieces of news have trouble penetrating the fusillade of mainstream media propaganda.
Those 951 innocents may not ever get their due, but the corporate media will do everything in its power to urge you to try a large Papa Johns pizza and give Geico 15 minutes of your time.
Jerry Kroth
Jerry Kroth, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor Emeritus from Santa Clara University and may be contacted through his website collectivepsych.com
A dry statistic emerged from the UN yesterday reporting that close to 4,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year. It estimated how many were victims of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and then attributed 951 casualties to the U.S. [1]
These are civilians we killed, and it isn't even news.
What is news and what isn't continues to mystify. It seems when we are the victims, its news; when they are it isn't.
Seventeen children were killed in the Parkland shooting. The US media had a blockbuster run on that story featuring it 7,900 times [2]
Nine people were killed in the Charleston church shooting and the story was wall-to-wall 24-7. [3][4]
But America's Afghan killing spree?
No way.
These were not "terrorists" or "militants," by the way, or any of the familiar categories we use to distance ourselves from our actions. These were regular, men, women, children, grandparents, aunt's, uncles, and cousins who succumbed to American bullets and bombs.
And there are surely many more than these, uncounted and generally unmentioned, in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Chad, Niger, Somalia, Libya; [5] the current list of America's killing fields.
Instead CNN seems utterly obsessed these days with getting U.S. humanitarian aid to hungry Venezuelans--starving mainly because U.S. sanctions are kind of starving them.
Strangely enough, liberal leftie, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fully supports America's war of liberation in Venezuela singing the same tune as right-winger John Bolton. How amazing that Democrats and Republicans hold hands on overthrowing a sovereign country, which legally holds a seat at the UN, and both enthusiastically support wannabe leader, Juan Guaido for President while the majority of Venezuelans never heard of the guy. [6]
I wonder what mysterious hunger brings Debbie and John to the same feeding trough?
Could it be that Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves in the world? [7]
Even more amazing, though, is how other pieces of news have trouble penetrating the fusillade of mainstream media propaganda.
Those 951 innocents may not ever get their due, but the corporate media will do everything in its power to urge you to try a large Papa Johns pizza and give Geico 15 minutes of your time.
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