The Question (and today’s news channel obsession): What can be done to keep our troops safe in Iraq?
That’s the only way they will be safe. In case people missed this, there’s hundreds of insurgents trying to shot or blow the Americans up. And the guerillas are going to keep it up for the foreseeable future. I’m sure the military has done all the easy things it can to avoid the casualties. And if there’s any magic fixes left, those in the know aren’t going to be publicizing them on national TV anyway.
It’s the same old perspectiveless news phenomenon we see all the time. Had these 13 soldiers been killed in Iraq over a week or so–one or two at a time–it would have been business as usual and would only have warranted the obligatory footnote coverage leading into commercial breaks. But since they died in a spectacular attack, we’re suddenly awash in stories about “keeping the troops safe” and “is Iraq descending into chaos?”
It’s almost as though the media has the attention of a 12-year-old.