Star’s creative headline writer at odds with vast majority of Americans

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Daily Star today published a story by McClatchy Newspapers from Lesley Clark and Roy Gutman which the Star's creative headline writer captioned Obama: US will quit Iraq.

As you all know, "quit Iraq" was used as a pejorative by the Neoconservative Three Stooges of Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, who wanted to stay in Iraq "for a hundred years" as McCain declared. The right-wing noise machine conservative media has used this pejorative to question the patriotism and commitment of Americans to our troops in Iraq.

I Googled how this story from McClatchy was captioned in other newspapers that published it today. I found two newspapers:

Obama: All U.S. troops will leave Iraq by year's end. The war is over. -MiamiHerald.com

All U.S. troops to leave Iraq by year-end, Obama announces – The Denver Post

The Star's pejorative "quit Iraq" was used by one other U.S. news organization, ABC News. AM – US troops to quit Iraq by end of year.

"Quit Iraq" was also used by the foreign news organization China.org and the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. I am reasonably certain the Star does not get its news feeds from either organization.

When this nation ends a war it is generally cause for celebration, with headlines like the one in this photo from V-J Day at the end of World War II (photo by Ed Westcott. Residents of Oak Ridge, TN, fill Jackson Square to celebrate the surrender of Japan. 14 August 1945).

The Arizona Daily Star headline today impliedly expresses disappointment to see this unnecessary of war of choice end, a view not shared by the vast majority of American citizens who have wanted U.S. involvement in Iraq to end for years.

Daily Kos does a feature every day that creates a montage of headlines from newspapers across the country. The rest of the media seems to have gotten the headline correct. Our sad small town newspaper and its creative headline writer appear to stand alone in their disappointment that the Iraq war is over and our troops are coming home in time for the holidays.

Visual source: Newseum