Soldiers Lives Appearantly Worth Less Than Civilians (14 Soldiers Die In Helicopter Crash Due To Mechanical Difficulties)

 

“Fourteen Americans from the 25^th Infantry Division from Hawaii were killed today when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed in Northern Iraq. U.S. officials blame the crash on mechanical difficulties and not on hostile fire.”

That 7-second blip was all that was said about the 14 dead on NBC Nightly News last night. A similarly brief recap was broadcast on my local CBS affiliate a few hours later. The verbal emphasis was that it was a positive thing that their deaths were not a result of hostile fire.

May I take a moment to state the obvious? If these were Americans who died in an aircraft accident as a result of “mechanical difficulties” in any other part of the world, or more specifically: if the 14 dead were civilians, this story would be the lead story on every major new program and network in the country, and no doubt, discussed ad nauseum for days.

Helicopters are not significantly different from airplanes, American’s fly in helicopters every day, and if one crashed, killing all 14 aboard, due to mechanical difficulties, the press would have a field day: What happened? Why wasn’t this defect or problem identified earlier? Who is in charge? Who is to blame? Are helicopters safe anymore? The manufacturer better answer to us!

But no. Because it happened to U.S. soldiers, there was a 7-second blip about it and little to nothing else. As if dead soldiers are so common, such an everyday occurrence, that as long as they weren’t killed by hostiles…is it still not worth our umbrage? That the cause of their deaths, that being an accident, was merely a broadcast footnote.

I am upset that no one cares. That if these were civilians, that this would be a national story, that because these are soldiers, the story is inconsequential.