Action Alert
Are 2,000 U.S. Deaths "Negligible"?
Fox's Brit Hume downplays U.S. deaths in Iraq
10/25/05
Imagine a major mainstream media figure stating that the deaths
of American soldiers in Iraq are not really a big deal. You
would expect that pundits across the political spectrum would
attack such a statement as an affront to the troops and a
belittling of their sacrifices.
But you don't have to imagine; this scenario has already
happened, with hardly a peep from other commentators. The
journalist in question is Fox News Channel anchor Brit Hume. On
the October 13 broadcast of Special Report, the show he
regularly hosts, Hume said of U.S deaths in Iraq, "by historic
standards, these casualties are negligible."
What history is Hume referring to? It's true that U.S. deaths
were substantially higher in World War I and II, Korea and
Vietnam--major wars fought either against major world powers or
against well-armed states backed by superpowers. Deaths were
also much higher in the U.S. Civil War.
But when compared to other conflicts in its category--wars and
counterinsurgency operations against comparatively weak,
isolated nations and guerrilla movements--the death toll in Iraq
is strikingly high. Of all the other U.S. military interventions
over the past 30 years--which include Lebanon, Grenada, Panama,
the 1991 Gulf War, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan--none
have come close to 1,000 U.S. deaths, let alone 2,000. By those
"historical standards," the Iraq War has been remarkably deadly.
Hume's October 13 comment wasn't the first time he has tried to
downplay the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq. On August 4,
following a day in which 18 U.S. troops were killed in combat,
Hume stated that "of course, by historical standards, these
casualties, even after this attack this week, are minor, I mean,
militarily minor." Hume did add the deaths were "a terrible
tragedy for everybody involved, and the families and all, but
they're not large casualties by historical military standards."
Weeks later, Hume repeated that position (8/24/05): "By historic
standards, military standards, these casualties in Iraq are
quite low."
When the U.S. military death toll passed the 1,000 mark last
year, Hume posed this question to retired Army Gen. Robert
Scales (9/7/04): "The question is, how important a milestone is
this? Is it militarily significant or psychologically important,
both, neither?" Scales gave an answer that sounded very much
like Hume's opinion: "It's very low casualties when you compare
it to something like Vietnam. I mean, at the height of the Tet
Offensive, which lasted, what, nine days, there were well over
1,000 American dead. So in terms of the rate, obviously it's
much lower."
On August 26, 2003, Hume conjured up a bizarre mathematical
formula to show that U.S. casualties were not a big deal:
"Two hundred seventy-seven U.S. soldiers have now died in Iraq,
which means that statistically speaking U.S. soldiers have less
of a chance of dying from all causes in Iraq than citizens have
of being murdered in California, which is roughly the same
geographical size. The most recent statistics indicate
California has more than 2,300 homicides each year, which means
about 6.6 murders each day. Meanwhile, U.S. troops have been in
Iraq for 160 days, which means they're incurring about 1.7
deaths, including illness and accidents each day."
Hume's geographic comparison was meaningless, since the total
population of California is far greater than the number of U.S.
troops in Iraq--approximately 240 times greater. If Californians
were being killed at the same rate that Hume cited for U.S.
soldiers, there would be more than 400 murders per day, not six.
When Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz (9/8/03) asked Hume
about that, Hume said: "Admittedly it was a crude comparison,
but it was illustrative of something."
Perhaps "crude" is the best way to describe Hume's attitude
towards U.S. fatalities in Iraq.
ACTION:
Please contact Fox News Channel and share your thoughts about
Brit Hume minimizing U.S. deaths in Iraq.
CONTACT:
Fox News Channel
Special Report with Brit Hume
special@foxnews.com
Arianna Huffington on Judith Miller, Dave Zirin on politics &
sports (10/21/05-10/27/05)
Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair@fair.org ). We can't reply
to everything, but we will look at each message. We especially
appreciate documented examples of media bias or censorship. And
please send copies of your correspondence with media outlets,
including any responses, to fair@fair.org.
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<><><> Los Angeles, Alta California <><><><>
October 25, 2005
Cindy Sheehan to tie herself to the White House fence
as 2000 dead soldiers reached in Iraq
Cindy Sheehan will tie herself to the White House fence to
protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq.
That milestone has just been reached today!
On Monday the mother who lost a son in Iraq said, "I'm
going to go to Washington, D.C. and I'm going to give a
speech at the White House, and after I do, I'm going to tie
myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to
bring our troops home."
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Related La Voz de Aztlan article:
Meet Cindy Sheehan
http://www.aztlan.net/meet_cindy_sheehan.htm