The Chaparral

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Politics

President George Bush. Photo courtesy of Google.

A U.S. Soldier prays in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Google.

The month of March marked the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, but BBC news says the American public isn't interested and research seems to support this notion.

According to BBC News, Chief Diplomatic Correspon-dent Paul Adams says Americans didn't react strongly to the war's death toll (4,000) and are shifting their attention away from the war onto the economy and Presidential Election.

BBC News noted that American newspapers mentioned the war but only the Los Angeles Times made it front page news. Most of the newspapers mentioned combat operations but few focused on just the anniversary. BBC news commented, "It's more of a dull ache than a sharp pain".

The Pew Research Center's study discovered since last August the public's awareness on military deaths decreased, leaving only one-quarter of Americans knowledgeable.

Pew Research Center is relating this lack of interest with the success that U.S. troops have had in trying to decrease the amount of military fatalities. It might also be due to the Iraq war only taking up three percent of all media outlets, according to Pew research.

MSNBC.com also adds that because of the decreasing interest, Iraq's improvements are going unnoticed. Both John McCain and President Bush say there is great success within the war and strongly feel America cannot pull soldiers out yet. Even so, 61 percent of people think the next president should remove the majority of U.S. troops from Iraq, according to CNN opinion research.

An ABC News opinion poll found that 60 percent of U.S. voters don't approve of the way Bush is handling the war and feel the cause is not worth the deaths.

Nonetheless, President Bush spoke on the war's anniversary stating that continuation in the war is constructive to America. "One day, people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come.'"

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