By Robert E. Johnson
Guest columnist

What really motivates our politicians and news media to report and distort the news the way they do?

Wartime casualties are not good. I know about casualties, because I was in the Army infantry and saw combat in the Solomons during World War II.

To keep the numbers in perspective, consider that there were 51,000 casualties during three days of fighting at Gettysburg, and about a thousand sailors are imprisoned in the battleship Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Consider the losses at Iwo Jima, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, in Vietnam and Korea. Consider there are about 70,000 missing and unaccounted-for casualties from World War II. We have had 200 to 300 casualties in Iraq, and the media and politicians continue to emphasize how terribly the war there is going and almost completely ignore what our troops are accomplishing daily.

Consider also that there are thousands of casualties annually in the United States suicides, auto accidents, deaths from breast and prostate cancer, AIDS and venereal diseases. There are casualties in major cities each day domestic violence, gang-related incidences, drug-related shootings, and shootings by former employees. There are many casualties from auto accidents, thousands of deaths annually from breast and prostate cancer, AIDS and venereal diseases. In addition, consider how many casualties there are in our major cities each day from domestic violence, gang-related incidents, drug-related shootings, and shootouts by former employees.

What do we hear from the politicians and news media daily? We have had a few hundred casualties in Iraq, and they continue to emphasize how terribly the war there is going and almost completely ignore what our troops are accomplishing daily. The Constitution mentions that giving aid and comfort to the enemy is treason. Arent these politicians and news media people encouraging the enemy?

Perhaps our politicians could cut out some of their pettiness and self-centered interests and get on with voting on pending judge nominations, figure out how to reduce the national debt and how to cut out pork spending.

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Robert E. Johnson is a World War II veteran who lives in Morrow.