The USA rating has slipped to at least 50th place - down from about 17th just a few years ago. One way that all dictatorships gain and keep control of their people, is to supress information and control media. This gradually paves the way for a totalitarian government in which you are fed a constant supply of government approved news - which in turn creates much more isolationisim and brainwashing.
I had heard about this months ago, but it seems to be only now that its actually starting to make the news. The war is a good example of course - recall the photo's of the caskets lying in the hangar that were quickly removed. The double amputee from Iraq given an honorable discharge that was not desired as a guest - he was going to wear shorts and it would have been deemed inappropriate. Too 'in your face' a casuality of war. The interview Woodruff gave when he asked the government directly - why are you not telling the truth about the number of injured coming home...and the answer back was 'because this administration has decided that the media will limit what information will be given to the public'...(not a direct quote).
I find it personally confusing. Bush touts democracy as one of the primary reasons he has men and women getting killed in Iraq - on both sides - and yet, in a democracy there should reign freedom of the press. If the government controls the media and the media and the government are our ties to the truth - then where does that put all of us? sammieswife.
From Woodruffs interview last night on abc; - apparently the numbers are about 150,000 people with injuries now-not counting all those who have fallen between the cracks
While the U.S. Department of Defense says that there have been about 23,000 nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq, Woodruff discovers — through an internal VA report — that more than 200,000 veterans have sought medical care for various ailments, including more than 73,000 diagnoses for mental disorders.
Nicholson plays down those figures, telling Woodruff, "A lot of them come in for dental problems. … We're providing their health care."
Woodruff reports that even these numbers may not tell the whole story: According to unreleased data from the Department of Defense, at least 10 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may have sustained a brain injury during their service.