From TMZ:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Staff Sgt. Justin R. Whiting, 27, of Hancock, N.Y., died Jan. 19 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Campbell, Ky.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Richard B. Burress, 25, of Naples, Fla., died Jan. 19 in Al-Jabour, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Jon M. Schoolcraft, III, 26, of Wapakoneta, Ohio, died Jan. 19 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Comments
35 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Brilliant post. Makes everyone remember what’s really important..
Well played. I nearly skipped over this post before scanning and seeing there was some meat to it.
If Heath Ledger had died in Iraq the war would probably end sooner.
oh. i get it.
well done. of course, the nastier crime is when similar amounts of press coverage go to tmz revelations of Britney’s latest meltdown. of course the sudden death of an acclaimed young actor is noteworthy and newsworthy, but it is nauseating how much celebrity in general eclipses more substantive news.
they are all freaking out about Ledger on another blog i read daily (towleroad), and part of the coverage included a link to a story about how his former fiance Michelle Williams is “devastated.” wtf. how is this news to anyone, and more importantly, how is it anyone’s business to investigate her personal response to this news?
i wish there were some way to combat this rampant celebrity obsession, but i guess it’s just ingrained in human nature to a certain extent. any ideas? maybe more things like this post. thanks, Chris.
You know, I hate celebrity-obsessed culture just as much as the next guy, but c’mon. Sure, those other non-celebrity deaths deserve just as much, if not more, attention by the mainstream media. What’s happening in Iraq deserves much closer scrutiny and discussion than who might win which Oscar. But it’s more than a little mean-spirited to equate coverage of Ledger’s death with some kind of frivolous puff piece.
Twentysomethings died in car accidents today, died of gun violence, died of terminal diseases… It is myopic to foucs so much on one death, but its also easier to write and sell a story about someone who is well known than a story about a kid who no one has ever heard of. Im not saying its right but its to be expected.
On a side note the news about Ledger really bummed me out only because of this trailer:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6458744563058689309&q=batmAN+DARK&total=3573&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Dark Knight
applause for this post!!
this afternoon’s flooding of news coverage over this event (which, I would argue against Fred, is actually trivial in the long view) is … well beyond irritating. So far, the U.S. has killed more Iraqi civilians (in the past 4 years) than Idi Amin killed in 9. I think that’s worth more discussion than whether or not Heath Ledger might have felt depressed over a relationship breakup. Or whether Britney has a drug problem. But perhaps it’s these non-sense “news” stories that keep Americans dumbed down about the real elephant in the room.
please pardon my poor sentence structure… Idi Amin killed approx 300,000 Ugandans… the U.S. is responsible for upwards of 500,000 Iraqi’s…. so far.
Niel, that’s not fair. Idi Amin killed pretty exclusively the innocent. Americans at least TRY to keep the innocent victim body count down, though war is hell.
To say otherwise is the same old disgraceful “baby killer” rhetoric of the Vietnam war.
DaveS, it is fair. Amin’s killings were stirred by political, ethnic, economical factors – all factors that are cited for the USA’n presence in Iraq (without so much the ethnic factor, but much of the violence in that country has been brought about under influence of domestic tribes). The only difference is that the Bush administration refers to these deaths as “collateral damage”. In other words, ‘innocent people’ got in the way of our damn bombs.
I don’t buy that, Niel. Argument by assertion.
To say otherwise is the same old disgraceful “baby killer†rhetoric of the Vietnam war.
Rhetoric? My Lai was not an accident. By many accounts, including a vet who was a teacher of mine, it was business as usual. War isn’t just “hell” as an expression. War makes monsters and psychological cripples of many, if not most, of those involved. The US vets in Asia in WWII were knocking out Japanese teeth for gold just like the fucking Nazis in the death camps. What Japan was doing in China was every bit as bad. Anyone who ever talks about war as being less than a real, full-blown Hell full of monsters, torture, rape, degradation, and destruction not just of life but of souls — and not some convenient throwaway metaphor — is the enemy of all mankind.
Again, though, 80 people were killed by bad prescriptions today. The Iraq + Afghanistan US servicemen death count is at 4,411 tonight. Maybe 1,000,000 “surplus” deaths in Iraq, 5,000,000 refugees. Iran coming down the pike. The next president, Red or Blue, of the US is going to continue to make all that worse.
So, this post contains a decent punchline but makes no real point in the context of all the other current events not on Access Hollywood and CNN tonight.
Did you mean ‘proof by assertion’? If you did, I assure you that I’m not trying out some form of academic rhetoric on you. And hell, I’d change my opinion on the matter if you could give me something better than the “baby killer” argument. Sometimes soldiers are baby killers, but I didn’t say that… and you accusing me of it doesn’t make it so. The only difference I see in the two subjects of analogy are that Amin killed people within his own country, the USA is doing that in other peoples’ countries. I’m no USA-basher, but I mean, I don’t see how you could argue the fact that the USA is in a “war” that was never legally declared a war in a country which never launched an attack on the USA, and are killing people for no reason outside of political posturing. Why do people find it so hard to admit that? What am I missing?
(it’s amazing how we’re not discussing Heath Ledger isn’t it?
)
I agree with Fred. People die everywhere every day, but that does not make Heath Ledger’s death less tragic. To gloss over it like that is, frankly, more than a little rude.
I agree with *Circe*. And you could use the same argument about any reporting… X number of people died in Y of Z today, how can you devote P column inches to this sex scandal/ that film release/ the other baseball game/ ad nauseum.
In fact, the items Chris posted under this heading emphasize *why* these deaths aren’t given masses of column inches. Even the people releasing the information are using a standard form, merely changing names and ranks: there’s nothing ‘new’ there, no new input, no other information. Heath Ledger is someone people know, he’s never died before, it’s *interesting* (well, not to me – but you get the point). And his death, too, will be forgotten soon enough.
Great post, homie.
Of course there are other news stories that deserve equal, if not more, attention. And of course Ledger’s death, in perspective, is much less important than the constant death toll in Iraq. It just seems like a cheap and obvious point to make, and, framed like this, it seems like one made at the expense of a young man’s death.
No, I didn’t mean “proof by assertion”, I meant, “argument by both sides restating their fixed opinion ad-nauseum”. I don’t participate in that, if I can help it.
Anyway, I apologize for the comment. I should have remained silent.
If Heath Ledger died in Iraq, we would not have heard about it at all, unless of course it got posted here.
its not like it was jack nicholson… *ahem*
Poor saps.
This is exactly my point. People are dying all the time, we are only discussing Heath because of his celebrity status.
“Brilliant post. Makes everyone remember what’s really important..”
Yeah, a wealthy country is occupying a less wealthy country under a pretext, killing as many civilians as “insurgents” and, oddly enough, some are being killed in return.
Normally i’d agree with the sensationalist celebrity mis-prioritising sentiment, but as far as Iraq goes, who the fuck thinks “HOO-AH”ing grunts being killed whilst invading a country is of more significance?
“Niel, that’s not fair. Idi Amin killed pretty exclusively the innocent. Americans at least TRY to keep the innocent victim body count down, though war is hell.”
Doesn’t that make it worse? The U.S. occupation has inadvertently killed 200,000 civilians more in four years’ less time than a regime that targeted civilians exclusively?
Kind of shot yourself in the foot there.
Before we get totally out of hand, here, I don’t think it’s fair to blame the US for Iraqi civilians killed by insurgents. That 200K number includes that. It’s well documented that Americans are much more careful about civilians than the insurgents are.
When I said “war is hell”, what I really meant is that if you go to war, lots of people die. Lots. Innocents and combatants alike. The time to cry outrage was when we were first considering war. It’s so easy to be horrified in retrospect.
BTW, if you’re going to blame America for all the dead from the war, since we started it, after all, it’s only reasonable that you subtract the number of people Saddam would have killed had the invasion not happened. They weren’t called the blood-baath party for nothing.
That is a good idea DaveS!
Let’s take the number of people killed in the war and subtract the (estimated hypothetical) number that Sadaam would have killed.
Should we include people who died as a result of infrastructure damage (i.e. cholera, lack of medical care etc.) or just classic war death?
Maybe let’s just keep it classic.
Let me know what number you come up with.
PS – do we still have to pay for it?
Um I’m with Fred 100% on this.
are you kidding? Yes, people are celeb-obsessed. Yes, i totally read everything there is to read about Britney Spears. Yes, I care that Heath Ledger died. I am so sad to hear that such an amazing person has died. He was an amazing actor and should be in everyone’s thoughts daily. The deaths in Iraq are sad, and they are tragic, but I have never felt like I know them personally. I didn’t know Heath personally, obviously, I’m only a celeb-obsessed kid. But his acting meant something to me. His acting inspired me. and it’s a damn shame that he died. We lost a great one. and I admit, I care about him and his death way more than I care about the whole damn war. Call me crazy, but he touched me, he inspired me, on so many levels, and to say that you don’t care about him dying, you don’t care about how his family is doing, that’s your own damn problem and i hope someone comes along and helps you get through your life without getting bitch slapped.
Get better, I will pray for you.
Kid, you need to get a grip. There’s a whole world of shit coming down on your head and you can’t even be bothered to look because you’re too busy watching your alpha monkeys on “Extra!”
one of these commenters doesn’t belong. i think it’s the one who said she cared more about Heath Ledger than about the entirety of the iraq war, and then offered to pray for us. we wish we could think for you.
Here in Kentucky, every time one of “our” soldiers (from here or stationed at Ft. Campbell) dies, all flags across the state fly at half-mast through the day of the funeral. I drive by both the post office and the board of education twice every day, and they seem to be at half-mast more and more lately. It gets me every time.
First, thanks Hannah for the perspective. It can be a lesson in monkeyspheres for the rest of us.
Secondly, this post reminds me of something I saw on CNN during the Michael Jackson trial in 2005. Michael was 2 hours late to court that day, and the news agencies and field reporters were all focused on the Jacksonless courthouse. Basically, the story was “Look Where Michael Jackson Isn’t.” Then I noticed this phrase pass on the crawl at the bottom of the screen: “33 die in roadside bomb blast in Iraq.” CNN was saying to me, “The precise location of Michael Jackson is more important than the 33 lives we just whispered about.” This wasn’t even one death weighed against another, it was “someone’s running late” weighed against 33 lives lost. And look who won. I’ve been disgusted with the media’s judgment ever since.
Thirdly, Miss Cellania, it’s good to see another Kentuckian out there representin’! Owensboro for life!
Thank you.
Of course there are other news stories that deserve equal, if not more, attention. And of course Ledger’s death, in perspective, is much less important than the constant death toll in Iraq. It just seems like a cheap and obvious point to make, and, framed like this, it seems like one made at the expense of a young man’s death. [Fred]
That is like saying that there is a specific time and place this should be addressed. Why should it matter if it is Ledger or any other celebrity? You agree with the principle, and hopefully generating discussion here will generate it elsewhere (news etc.)