Never Mind That, it's Just the War in Iraq

Associated Press Television writer David Bauder files this report; as a television story, Americans are just paying Iraq no mind.

He quotes CNN correspondent Arwa Damon, "It's no big secret that this is a war that everyone has grown tired of . . . Iraqis are aware of it. They think it's a story that people are tired of hearing about." While a year ago the war filled 23 percent of news, today it's just 3 percent.

Violence in Iraq did level off, but rose again this past month. The number of troops has not decreased significantly, nor has spending. What's changed is that there's no audience, no broadcast.

Newspapers and magazines have moved on, too. Richard Pérez Peña summarizes in the Times, "The drop in coverage parallels—and may be explained by—a decline in public interest. Surveys by the Pew Research Center show that more than 50 percent of Americans said they followed events in Iraq 'very closely' in the months just before and after the war began, but that slid to an average of 40 percent in 2006, and has been running below 30 percent since last fall."

It's a confounding situation. The war barrels on in the middle of a desert. The audience dwindles. No change in plans is scheduled. In short, there's no end in sight. Is there a reason for all this?

Al-Qaeda? Iran? Or . . .

With the shuttering title, "A Crude Case For War," the Washington Post takes seriously the question of why Iraq? And why stay? Like a 600-lb. gorilla in the middle of the fetid and stinking room where this war has been shuttered for more than five years, all arrows point to the world's second largest known reserves, with more discovered all the time, and contracts being signed regularly, it's very much about the oil.

Perhaps it began long ago, but this is the point at which the Iraq War becomes—at least it stands center stage, nearly invisible, for all to see who bother to look—hauntingly, the cost of doing business. The country has the privilege to look away, and the thousands tick off, all for . . . ?

Comments

[QAISER RIZVI]

SHAME ON AMERICAN POLICY MAKERS

I understand the meaning of President Obama's speech in General Assembly as " AMERICA CAN CREATE CRISIS AND PROBLEMS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD BUT CAN NOT RESOLVE THE PROBLEMS AND CRISIS ALONE"

Shame on America and its Cruel and selfish policy makers. America can not be saved from the revange of the nature and and the States of the America will be splitted like the USSR Republics in near past, and it will happen and the world will see the downfall of America very soon............'.INSHA ALLAH'

They says Alqaeda is a treat for the world but the fact is that USA is more bigger threat for the nations of the world and world is realizing now.

Qaiser Rizvi
Karachi,Pakistan