When Good News Isn't News

As bad news from Iraq has decreased, so have news reports from Iraq. Apparently, success, as seen in the absence of car bombs and lower numbers of casualties, and the hard, difficult work of maintaining security so people can live normal lives again, just isn’t as interesting or newsworthy as bombs and deaths and apparent failure.

In that spirit, I wanted to give a brief history of the United States’ involvement in World War II:

• December 1941 – Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
• January - June 1942 – Massive losses to German U-Boats in the North Atlantic.
• April 1942 – Bataan surrenders.
• May 1942 – Corregidor surrenders.
• February 1943 – Americans suffer huge losses at Kasserine Pass in North Africa.
• August 1943 – George Patton removed from command after slapping a soldier.
• January 1944 – Allies bottled up on beachhead at Anzio in Italy.
• June 1944 – U.S. fails to reach first-day targets in Normandy invasion; disarray among parachutists and gliders result in loss of countless troops.
• June/early July 1944 – US forces fail to break out of Normandy.
• December 1944 – Massive German counteroffensive in Ardennes pushes US forces back.
• February 1945 – 6,800 troops die and 20,000 are wounded trying to take Iwo Jima.
• April - June 1945 – 5000 American sailors die in Japan’s kamikaze campaign at Okinawa.