Letter to Globe re coverage of US Iraq war dead and wounded

[paineinthearse]

No link - received by email from the author.

The Boston Globe
Letters to the Editor
4-26-05

To the Editor:

Over the past three years, speaking on behalf of the Boston chapter of the Veterans for Peace, I have been urging the Globe to publish an accounting of the US Iraq war dead and wounded that is more than a sporadic mention of the latest number embedded in the last paragraph of a geneneral news article. So far my requests have gone unanswered and I assumed they would continue to go unanaswered. I was therefore truly startled to see a prominently displayed front page story with the photos of 8 US Iraq war dead in today's Globe ("Unready for Combat', 4-26-05). The article is a feature story that connects the deaths with inadequate training. It a story worth telling and Bryan Bender tells it well. I commend the Globe for giving it such prominence. Neverheless, the story by its nature, gives no accounting of the growing number of dead and wounded (1567 dead, 11442.wounded, at last count). Except for a graphic in march with statistics on various aspects of the war, I have yet to see coverage that gives Globe readers a well informed understanding of the costs of the Iraq war in lives lost and bodies maimed.

I hope the Bender story portends a new Globe policy. Korea has been called "the forgotten war". Iraq should not earn the title "the invisible war".

Respectfully,

Al Armenti , WW II
Veterans for Peace, Chap. 9