BOMBINGS AND THE MEDIA

There were two accounts of bombings in the media today. The first concerned the explosions in the Boston Marathon, that killed three people; the second was about the bombings in Iraq that killed at least 31 people. Guess which got more coverage.

I am not saying that one is better or worse than the other, both are equally reprehensible. My point is that more than 10 years after the Iraq invasion, and some years after the Western troops were withdrawn on the grounds that there was no longer any need for them, the country remains an extremely dangerous place, in which bombings are commonplace. So commonplace that they rarely merit a mention in Western media, and then only as an item down the list, not as a headline.

When historians look back on Iraq in 50 years' time, they will shake their heads at the vast amount of resources - human, financial, other - spent in Iraq, in order to achieve what? Pretty much nothing.

Walter Blotscher