As amazing as it is that technology has allowed us all to become more connected than ever, it’s even more amazing that we’ve chosen instead to become more disconnected from what’s going on in the world.
From tonight’s Daily Show interview with Lara Logan, chief foreign correspondent for CBS News (and an amazing woman in every sense of the word):
Jon Stewart: I mean, there were 51 people killed today in a Shia neighborhood in Iraq. Are we just numb? Have we lost our humanity with this entire situation?
Lara Logan: Yeah, we have. You know, I was asked once, “Do you feel responsible for the American public having a bad view, a negative view, of the war in Iraq?” And I looked at the reporter and I said, “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier — What does that look like?” Who in America knows what that looks like? — Because I know what that looks like, and I feel responsible for the fact that no one else does, you know? That’s what I feel responsible for, that nobody really understands.
And the soldiers do feel forgotten, they do, no doubt, from Afghanistan to Iraq, they absolutely feel — you know, it hasn’t — We may be tired of hearing about this five years later; they still have to go out and do the same job. I was in Sadr City when it was just going absolutely hell for — I mean, Sadr City was like Armageddon, and there were soldiers there who had been in the country nine months, had never seen combat like that, just thrown into it — didn’t, you know — You’re talking about convoys ambushed with five, six armor piercing bombs, rocket propelled grenades, everything — nine, ten, fifteen-hour battles, I mean …
JS: And it’s something that we might get just a brief glimpse of, on the news, or just a mention, and that kind of thing …
LL: And more soldiers died in Afghanistan last month than Iraq — who’s paying attention to that? Thirty-three thousand, highest troop levels since the war began — seven years after we defeated the Taliban.
JS: Well, it’s certainly, you know — it’s funny, we criticize the government a lot, but I guess we have a responsibliity that we haven’t lived up to as people either — to keep ourselves up on it. So we appreciate everything you’re doing, and thanks for coming on and seeing us.
LL: Thank you.
