A GOOD REPUTATION? WE’RE GAGGING FOR IT.
The long awaited report of General Petraeus into the current state of affairs in Iraq was delivered on September 10th.
As many predicted, it may as well have been in the hand writing of one George W. Bush.
The report is further evidence that a war weary public is tired of hearing about violence, death, and bloodshed in Iraq.
There was unprecedented public protest in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Only recently, as reported in the Guardian, the Ministry of defence issued a gagging order forbidding soldiers from engaging in any negative discussion of Iraq in the public sphere, for fear of influencing public opinion.
Popular public opinion across the UK has remained opposed to the war
As the Independent reported on the day following General Petraeus’ report: “Claims that the US military strategy is paving the way for a stable society bear little resemblance to the reality on the ground."
There are, however, independent groups and NGOs, to whom the truth remains more important than any political agenda.
The ‘Iraq Body Count’ (IBC), an independent analytical project, is one such source. Any information released by the IBC is based on carefully compiled facts. The purpose is to compile a record of all non-combatants killed in Iraq as a direct result of the 2003 invasion.
The IBC states that, on Sunday, 16th September, "at least 71 civilians died in ten separate incidents, including a 6 year old boy who was killed by sniper fire".
On Saturday 8th September, "59 people died. Four of these, who were found by police, had been killed returning from a funeral".
It is indicative of news values in the modern day that the death toll in Iraq, though as horrific as ever, is for the most part no longer considered worthy of main stream coverage.
The list published daily by the IBC leaves a sense of numbness. The death count, and the details, are shocking, and disturbing, though words such as these are hopelessly insufficient.
The world knows full well that, at the time of writing, post war Iraq has gone horribly wrong.
It is far too late for those who would rather the truth was kept under wraps to start searching for ways and means to convince us that everything is going just fine.
Report:
In producing an article for an international student audience, the scope available is wide ranging. The issues that concern students are the issues that concern us all. We should not feel restricted to specific 'student' issues in producing an article of interest to students.
I feel that major global issues should be of particular interest to a student audience, as it is during education, as we prepare for our tenure as global caretakers, that interests are developed that may then set an agenda for many years to come.
The lifeatuni.com site is aimed at students in the UK and the US, and is updated weekly. In producing this article, I selected a topic that had a strong news angle, due to the release that same week of the report into Iraq in the US.
The subject area is one that I have a particular passion for, and I felt that by drawing attention to the work of the IBC, in the light of the US report, a strong story could be pieced together, from a variety of very different sources, each with ready access. The piece also contains a strong comment flavour, which is very much what the lifeatuni.com editors request.
The original story was around twice the length. It delved into more detail to justify the points being made. Again, this was more in line with the style that the site adopts.
The image, I felt, summed up nicely the background to the story.
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