The Amherst Wire

United States Marine Corps veteran Adam Belanger sits in the University of Massachusetts library shaking his head as he recalls a recent moment in his geography class.

“I’m the only person in my class that could point out Iraq on a map!” he said. “It’s very frustrating because here in ‘liberal capital’ Massachusetts, where everyone is against the war, no one can find the war.”

Some say that such a lack of awareness is caused by the inability of news organizations to depict accurately what is happening in Iraq. And, some veterans at UMass, including Belanger and Sol Black, believe that misleading information and misperceptions of the war could have huge ramifications this election cycle. Belanger, who is now studying for an undergraduate degree at UMass, worries that American civilians are too detached from the war.

“Honestly, the only way it really impacts the majority of people on a daily basis is if it is right there in their face, which is a shame because people are dying or doing great things and courageous things every day over there and it never gets noticed unless it directly impacts [civilians].”

The government and the media are to blame for the public’s misconception of the war, says Belanger, who served in Fallujah from May 2006 to October 2006. The government leads the people to believe the situation is better than it really is and the media, marketing to its highest selling points, glorifies the sex, blood, and violence.

After five years of U.S involvement in Iraq, coverage of the war has fallen to the middle of the newspaper, fifth and sixth page coverage, says Black, a Marine Corps sergeant originally from Marblehead, Mass. He believes the media has better things to focus on and are more concerned about ratings. Black said, “[The media] isn’t worried about trying to inform Americans, that’s not what the media cares about.

“People forget what is going on until their neighbor’s son goes or their uncle goes.”

Black feels there is little public support for the war and troops, compared to previous wars. “There are so few people that are actually in Iraq,” he said, “A couple hundred thousand, but still, America is a big country.”

The ignorance common to many civilians can be blamed not only on the media coverage, but also the public’s reaction to it. As the months of U.S presence in Iraq continue, more and more people become disinterested and removed from what seems like repetitive stories. “You [only] hear about bombings [and how] many killed. People don’t remember that we’ve lost over 4,000 Americans there and that it’s costing our country over [an estimated] million dollars a week,” says Black.

“It’s not [just] the media now, it’s also people who just assume and hear bad things,” said Belanger. “People assume that if it has to do with Iraq, it’s automatically negative.”

According to a CNN Opinion poll on April 28-30, 68 percent of Americans oppose the war, yet only 15 percent see the war as the most important problem facing our country today. (CBS News/ New York Times Poll. March 28-April 2, 2008)

Although the veterans see the magnitude of voting on the issue in the general elections on Nov. 4, 2008, they fear many civilians do not. Black said, “Unfortunately I don’t think enough people [see Iraq as an issue]. People have just been really distracted by the economy and people forget there’s a war going on, [but the war] is responsible for crippling our economy.”

According to a Washington Post poll on April 15, seven in 10 Americans now give negative ratings to the President’s stewardship of the sinking U.S. economy. The failing economy combined with the continuous negative Iraq coverage makes the issue of Iraq less important in the upcoming election.

Black and Belanger differ on their opinions on the future of the White House. The more conservative Belanger said, “I don’t necessarily agree with why we went to war in the beginning, but I don’t believe in pulling out until the job is completed so McCain has my backing.”

In November, Black will be voting for the Democratic candidate. “I just don’t want another [expletive] Republican in the White House,” he said. “We’ve had our hands in the cookie jar where it doesn’t belong on several accounts, and it’s finally starting to catch up with us,” said Black. He hopes for the young, optimistic Obama to bring change to the White House. “Hopefully, he can change US foreign policy. It has kind of demonized us abroad.”

Despite their differing positions on the subject, they both agree the United State’s involvement with Iraq should be a serious issue for all Americans to consider in the elections.

“I’m all for people having different opinions, but educate yourself,” Belanger said. “The ignorance is really what gets me frustrated.”