National media trumpets civilian casualties

Image courtesy: Screenshot, NYTimes.com, February 14, 2010

Civilian casualties are the most unfortunate, tragic aspect of war. In order for good to defeat evil, we must often confront our enemies on their soil, and in every conflict, innocent people are caught in the crossfire. The U.S. military takes every precaution to prevent the deaths of Afghans and Iraqis, and that's not just "spin" or press release talk. America demonstrated it in the leadup to Operation Moshtarak, which is now underway in Afghanistan's dangerous Helmand Province. Civilians were warned for weeks about the operation, and Taliban forces were given an ultimatum to leave the district of Marja. Top commanders, as well as the president himself, have said repeatedly that this mission is aimed at protecting civilians from the Taliban and al Qaeda, and that extreme measures would be taken to prevent local residents from being killed during the fighting.

Twelve Afghan civilians reportedly lost their lives in the early moments of Operation Moshtarak when American rockets aimed at terrorist targets went astray. This is, of course, extremely tragic and clearly unintentional. Instead of simply reporting the story, the national media is once again trumpeting civilian deaths, which has been a pattern ever since the war on terror began. While U.S. military triumps and the personal stories of heroism by our troops are given scattered coverage on an inconsistent basis, any incident where civilians are harmed, even without all the facts in place, are often given front page or lead story treatment by national media outlets.

The picture above shows the 12 civilian deaths are currently the top story on the website of The New York Times. As of 3:00 p.m. eastern Sunday, the story also leads the online coverage of CNN, and is given prominent placement on the websites of The Washington Post, ABC News, and MSNBC. CBS News and Fox News do not give the civilian deaths top billing at this time, instead reporting on Operation Moshtarak as a whole.

This site is not trying to minimize the deaths of these 12 civilians, or the many more tragic deaths that happen in wars every day. What this blog tries to do, unlike some journalists, is try to put them in the proper context. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have a long history of using civilians as human shields, as well as murdering or kidnapping them under the banner of their extreme ideology. The reason we are in Afghanistan is because terrorists planned an attack on innocent American civilians New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The planning took place mostly on Afghan soil, with support of the Taliban regime, which harbored Osama bin Laden and other known killers. While there has been intense political debate over this war, and even more over Iraq, the enemy's despicable war crimes are documented and indisputable, as well as the false reports put out by the enemy claiming American troops are targeting civilians. Why does the national media continually choose to focus on accidental deaths, instead of the many specific instances of U.S. troops saving the lives of Afghans and Iraqis?

I have read and written several stories about fallen U.S. troops, like 1st Lt. Tyler Parten and 1st Lt. Brian Bradshaw, who went out into villages to hand out candy and other small gifts to Afghan children during their deployments. Unfortunately, these are seen as 'small' gestures, and the media routinely ignores them, despite the risks involved. From a soldier's point of view, any pile of garbage or piece of land can have a bomb under it. Any individual can walk up to them with a bomb strapped under his or her clothes. Yet American troops consistently brave these undetectable threats to commit acts of kindness. And when there is an accident on the battlefield that takes an innocent person's life, they have to come home and live with it. For bizarre reasons, many reporters cannot see this reality, and instead jump at the opportunity portray the military as incompetent, or sometimes, like in the case of the civilian 'massacre' that wasn't in Haditha, Iraq, as monsters.

Let's continue to call on the national press to give, at the very least, equal time to the extraordinary stories of sacrifice in war. Comment on stories or write in to newspapers, television networks, and websites, and demand a more comprehensive, complete picture be given to the American people during wartime. No American man or woman volunteers to serve in order to kill civilians in a foreign land. They sign up to protect them.