Night, after night, after night, we are forced to watch the litany of civilians killed, children burned, and homes destroyed in horrifying detail as the war between Israel and Lebanon intensifies.
And yet, there has not been a SINGLE DAY in the last 3 weeks that their conflagration has been going on, that MORE people are not being killed in Iraq. EVERY. DAY.
And on most days now for - oh, the nearly last four years or so.
The American Military restricted the movements of the media and prevented them from reporting much of the initial carnage of the war in Iraq, and now it's so dangerous, that most media outlets are reluctant to send their reporters into any but the "safest" (relatively speaking) areas of Baghdad and other cities, so we can't see the daily carnage first hand. Nonetheless, I cannot understand why the media continues to focus on the comparably low death toll and destruction between Israel and Hezbollah, when the fact remains that we have wiped out an entire country, more than 50,000 civilians have been killed (and we'll never know the real number), and we have inflicted loss and change on an entire region and a generation or more of their people that will forever alter their course in history.
There was an NPR commentary yesterday morning lamenting the environmental damage being done to the Lebanese coastline due to the oil spills from the bombing of Lebanon, but no mention is made of the priceless artifacts lost for all time in the museums of Iraq. Artwork and archeology dating back to the dawn of civilization. Destroyed for all time.
Not to mention the people....
America's attitude towards peace in the Middle East smacks of hypocrisy given our unapologetic bias towards Israel and our current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who are we to offer or demand peace accords?
