With little else to report that fits into their aready decided upon news view, that Iraq is a quagmire and a rerun of the Vietnam War, MSM often turn to poll numbers to report that Americans are turning against the war. A lengthy essay entitled Some Thoughts on Casualties in Times of War and Peace on Power Line contains this paragraph that succinctly explains why Americans might be turning against the war.
This should hardly be a surprise. On the contrary, how could it be otherwise? News reporting on the war consists almost entirely of itemizing casualties. Headlines say: "Two Marines killed by roadside bomb." Rarely do the accompanying stories--let alone the headlines that are all that most people read--explain where the Marines were going, or why; what strategic objective they and their comrades were pursuing, and how successful they were in achieving it; or how many terrorists were also killed. For Americans who do not seek out alternative news sources like this one, the war in Iraq is little but a succession of American casualties. The wonder is that so many Americans do, nevertheless, support it.
In the final analysis the poll numbers don't matter. Bush is not running for re-election. He's said we're staying the course, and we all know what that means. We're staying the course.
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