Underreported news

How quick life moves on, and how easy we all forget the events of last year. Yes we all remember the Tsunami, but how many still remember the pacification of Fallujah? Occasionally the name still crops up, sometimes in connection with the mention that the US used chemical weapons in Iraq, sometimes when another US soldier is killed there, but those subjects are then again quickly dropped as no one wants to really rock the boat.

After all, who wants to mention that all is not well in Iraq? Not the NPR:

Yesterday morning on NPR (National Pentagon Radio) their reporter in Baghdad was
asked if he felt what Mr. Bush said in a recent speech was true-was the US
military strategy in Iraq working? He replied that he felt what Mr. Bush said
was true in some cases, like in Fallujah. The NPR reporter referred to Fallujah
as "pacified."

But soldiers and civilians are still dying there, just as everywhere else in Iraq. True, the number of reports are getting less, but that seems to be because the media deems them less newsworthy than other items, not because less people are being killed. And the deaths of Iraqis just doesn't rate as news any more.

Well what about those chemical weapons? Surely Iraq was invaded to ensure these do not get used? So now it turns out the US was using different chemical weapons (which are not outlawed as per the US State Department) , where is the huge public outcry? There was no memorable picture of a little girl covered in napalm burns, but people got killed just the same. Where is the independent examination, where the public protest? What about the UN? Again the story crops up and dies down, just not newsworthy.

I am sorry, but if Christmas is the period when we sing songs about goodwill to all men & peace on earth, then it surely is also the period where we should not just go shopping but take stock of the world around us and see if we are helping to achieve this peace & goodwill. And our lack of inaction, lack of reaction, just pisses me off. Sure we gave money to the victims of the tsunami, it was a natural disaster, nothing we could do to change it. But on those issues where we could have an effect, we just do not care enough about our fellow man. No protest against chemical weapons, which should be banned and outlawed, if they aren't already. No protest against the senseless destruction of a whole city and the continued killings therein (no, they did not find Zarqawi). And don't get me started on depleted uranium.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4442156.stm

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18394&hd=0&size=1&l=x

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18397&hd=0&size=1&l=x

http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive_Index/Illegal_Weapons_in_Fallujah.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1108/dailyUpdate.html