The political media establishment is enraptured by John McCain. Mainline media sparklies, as well as the blatherers on the Fox channel, routinely buff up his image as a straight-talking, maverick foe of Washington's special interests. "The press loves McCain. We're his base," gushes MSNBC's Chris Matthews. But if the senator really is the feared reformer of business-as-usual government, why does his presidential campaign look like the back alley of K Street?
Sign up for email alerts, from breaking news to weekly commentary:
Visit Hightower's General Store, to buy high-power Hightower books and other goodies like that.
Home | Contact | RSS | Privacy policy | Copyright Public Intelligence, Inc., all rights reserved 2003-2007
THE WAR TALLY
Bodies. Dead ones. Dead bodies are the harsh, horrifying, riveting reality of war.
That's why those who make war don't want you seeing the bodies, don't want you counting them or thinking about them. If you see, count, or think, you'll quickly question the war itself.
Thus, from the start of George W's disastrous Iraq war, the White House and Pentagon decreed that there could be no photos of America's dead returning from Iraq. The bodies arrive in the dark of night at a cordoned-off air-force base. The media establishment has cravenly submitted to this censorship of truth. Also, even though more than 2,800 Americans have died in Iraq, Bush has not honored them by attending a single funeral, for to do so would call attention to the bodies… and the real cost of his war.
Of course, Iraqi civilians comprise most of the dead, including children and old folks. Morgues and other sources report that the number of dead civilians has topped 40,000. Iraq's central government has now decreed that only it can release civilian death counts to the media.
Now, an independent statistical analysis, conducted by a team of American and Iraqi researchers connected to Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, estimates that more than 600,000 Iraqi civilians have died violently since Bush's 2003 invasion and occupation. The sight of dead bodies-- in the streets, in rivers, next door, on TV-- has come to be an everyday occurrence for Iraqis. This is a major reason that 82% of the people there want U.S. troops to leave.