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The Open Left wonders why there are so few stories concerning Iraq over the Memorial Day weekend.

Take a moment, today, while you're grilling up those ribs or thighs, to consider some other charred body parts - the arms, legs, and other limbs our soldiers have left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our troops have come home maimed, or in a flag-wrapped box, so that we could go on grillin,' chillin', and fillin' our tanks and tummies with cheap fuel and food.

Good luck with that; according to a report in today's New York Times, most Americans are too busy struggling to feed their families, fuel their cars, and cling to the roof over their heads to spend much time thinking about the sacrifices our soldiers are making on our behalf.

Apparently, we'd rather tune out the war, and our news media is happy to oblige, as David Carr reports:

"...coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has slipped to 3 percent of all American print and broadcast news as of last week, falling from 25 percent as recently as last September."

Carr asked Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, how the media could largely ignore a war that has cost us thousands of lives and over $1 trillion. Keller e-mailed back:

There is a cold and sad calculation that readers/viewers aren't that interested in the war, whether because they are preoccupied with paying $4 for a gallon of gas and avoiding foreclosure, or because they have Iraq fatigue.

This is largely a bunch of crap. The problem is that most of the news coming out of Iraq is encouraging and the media doesn't see fit to report it.

Ralph Peters explains.
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