Casualties of war coverage

Newspapers across the country are tuning into the five-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion this week, but the coverage is worth considering within a larger void of attention and awareness about the costs and impacts of the war.

According to a study released last week by the Pew Research Center, only three percent of news in February focused on Bush's war and less than one in three Americans (28 percent) know how many U.S. troops have died in Iraq.


For the record, the count is up to 3,989 confirmed U.S. soldier deaths, as of this posting. And, then there's the estimated 82,249 Iraq civilian casualties.

People around downtown Fort Collins can choose to tap into the outrage at 5 p.m. this evening when members of the local nonprofit group Strength Through Peace will mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion by organizing a convergence on Senator Ken Salazar’s office at 11 Old Town Square. The group will hold a press conference and present a petition demanding that Salazar vote against all future funding for the Iraqi occupation.