Barbarians Inside the Gates

From georgia10 at Dkos:

Allow me to introduce to you to Staff Sgt. Michael "Chad" Lloyd. His name is not John Mark Karr. He died recently while on foot patrol in Baghdad. His flight to the United States won't be in business class, and reporters won't scramble to sit next to him. His body's journey across the Atlantic won't be traced with flashy graphics or estimated time of arrivals. Flag-drapped coffins, you see, aren't as sexy as murder suspects.

Meet Trinette Johnson. Her name is not John Mark Karr. I doubt that her story will capture headlines in 10 years. Since returning from Iraq two years ago, she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. "She's not the same mommy," her children say. No one, save her troubled family, really gives a damn what she had to eat today, or how she's dealt with her pain these years. No one is asking "Who is Trinette Johnson?" and no one--especially not the press--seems to give a flying fuck that there are thousands of Trinette Johnsons out there, living (if you can call it that) with PTSD.

There's more. Unfortunately, there's always more in Iraq, where July recorded the most deaths in the entire occupation--an unbelievable 3400, eclipsing some 3100 Iraqis killed in June. And always more decadence revealed to us by our disgraceful masquerade called TV news.

Then again, we've got georgia10. One of the reasons we should be grateful for the blogosphere, especially in an era when the barbarians are inside the gates.