Counting Costs: The Value of a Life

Via Center for Media and Democracy:
Judith Coburn has written a thoughtful, detailed report on one of the most glaring journalistic failures in Iraq. "Publishing or pronouncing the names of the American dead everyday without ever mentioning the names of the Iraqi dead offers a powerful message that only American dying matters," she writes. "But there's no way to count, protest American journalists. What they mean is that the Pentagon doesn't count for them. ... The lack of 'official' figures, however, shouldn't absolve the media—or Americans—from their blindness to Iraqi suffering, since available figures, incomplete as they are, are staggering for a guerrilla war." A recent study documented 25,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since the war began (almost certainly a low estimate). Baghdad's main mortuary "looks more like a bus station: dozens of minibuses line up as crowds of men stream in with empty wooden coffins, then out again bearing loaded ones on their shoulders, chanting prayers as they go." According to war correspondent Oliver Poole, "The people of Baghdad do not need statistics to tell them that they are living through terror unimaginable in the West. Every two days for the past two years more civilians have died in Iraq than in the July 7 London bombings."

Via The New York Times:
An Indiana National Guard soldier charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi police officer unraveled the truth behind months of conflicting stories with a clear statement of guilt. Cpl. Dustin Berg, 22, pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of negligent homicide in a shooting he had previously claimed was self-defense. Berg said the November 2003 shooting was a rash judgment. He said it was a mistake to try to cover up the incident by shooting himself in the stomach. On Monday, Berg admitted shooting himself on purpose in an attempt to make it appear he was defending himself against the officer with whom he was on patrol. Berg, of Ferdinand, Ind., will spend 18 months in prison under a plea agreement. He will also be discharged from the Army for bad conduct. Berg, who had embraced his pregnant wife during the wait for his sentence, burst into tears when the judge announced it and continued crying when he was assured no more than 18 months in prison. He addressed the military judge to make a tearful plea for a lenient sentence. The 18-month sentence was less than a six-year sentence the judge recommended Monday, but military law requires that a judge accept the sentencing terms of a plea agreement in a court-martial. Berg also pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements and intentionally wounding himself. Berg's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, had asked the court to discharge Berg but not confine him to a military prison because Berg is newly married and has a child on the way. Berg's mother also pleaded for leniency during testimony. ''He is not a murderer,'' Mary Berg said.

technorati tags: War, Iraq, Justice