Associated Propaganda Press

By Ben Johnson
FrontPageMagazine.com

WHO IS THE BIGGER MURDERER: GEORGE W. BUSH OR OSAMA bin Laden? For the Associated Press, the scales are tipping in favor of our commander-in-chief.
The world’s most widely syndicated news service made the oblique, unflattering comparison yesterday in a story headlined “U.S. Deaths in Iraq Exceed 9/11 Count.” The AP reported with bated breath:

The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 2,974, one more than the number of deaths in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, according to an Associated Press count on Tuesday. The U.S. military announced the deaths of two soldiers in a bomb explosion southwest of Baghdad on Monday.

The deaths raised the number of troops killed to 2,974 since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks claimed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

Trumpeting American deaths at every opportunity – a staple of enemy psychological warfare – is old hat for the leftist-dominated press. There were similar media orgies for the 2,000th casualty, the 1,000th casualty, even the 721st casualty. The media bemoaned a ban on portraying military caskets – which they quickly broke – and have taken to classifying each month as, e.g., “the fourth deadliest month of fighting.” None of these convinced the American people Operation Enduring Freedom was more harmful than 9/11.

Enter yesterday’s story.

The AP’s choice of comparisons is vitally misleading. The reporter collated servicemen killed in Iraq to civilians murdered on 9/11 – rather than, say, with the number of homicides in a comparable number of American cities (where there are neither Fedayeen nor organized death squads, except those canonized in leftist victimology as “troubled inner city youths”). By its nature, this comparison beckons the reader to embrace the Left’s conclusions. The implication is clear: Operation Enduring Freedom has been worse for America than the 9/11 hijackings.

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