Afghanistan War -- Am I missing something

[CRedskinsRule]

Earlier in the year, I resurrected a thread about the Afghan war, questioning the lack of press, or serious questioning or detailed type reporting of the casualties there that was seen in the Iraq war. We lost more troops yesterday, and it still seems as if these deaths are unheralded, or just glossed over. I just don't get it. Why were the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq worth daily news focus, and diatribes on the need to exit, but US soldiers deaths in Afghanistan are not. icasualties.org has charts on the numbers of deaths and wounded. It is pretty startling:

Originally Posted by Afghan wounded by month since Jan 2009

columns are: Army Navy Marines Air Force and Total
Jan-2009 37 0 19 2 58
Feb-2009 24 0 2 1 27
Mar-2009 42 2 6 0 50
Apr-2009 41 0 5 0 46
May-2009 105 4 15 5 129
Jun-2009 136 4 33 2 175
Jul-2009 217 8 99 4 328
Aug-2009 299 9 104 4 416
Sep-2009 212 5 93 3 313
Oct-2009 195 5 73 5 278
Nov-2009 132 2 48 4 186
Dec-2009 73 5 50 5 133
Jan-2010 109 2 51 7 169
Feb-2010 111 7 98 2 218
Mar-2010 135 8 175 4 322
Apr-2010 137 4 145 5 291
May-2010 216 15 167 9 407
Jun-2010 280 12 234 3 529
Jul-2010 348 12 211 5 576

Total(since 2001) 5035 148 1937 165 7266

Originally Posted by Fatalities in Afghanistan since 2008

Columns are by Month -- Jan Feb Mar etc and total is last column
2008 14 7 19 14 22 46 30 46 37 19 12 27 293
2009 24 25 28 14 27 37 75 76 67 74 28 35 510
2010 43 52 37 33 51 103 88 79 57 35 0 0 578

First I am sorry that the charts aren't more readable, icasualties.org has the tables I cut and pasted from in organized fashion.

The main thing that caught my eye, is that since mid 2009(I bolded the split point on both charts), the number of wounded and killed monthly has nearly doubled but there is no where near the outcry. In the last thread, JoeRedskin said:

Why the lack of interest by America? Is it b/c the economy, health care and the snow storm have driven it from our minds? How long does Obama plan to be there? Are we trying to establish a client State? Are our efforts in this country in vain?

We have lost ~ 1,000 men in "and around" Afghanistan. Where is the discussion as to the necessity, or lack thereof, for there sacrifice?

Just curious.

I guess that's still my question with this thread, as our losses have gone up nearly 500, and our wounded by nearly 2500, since the start of the year.

With an election in 1 month, it seems like this would be at least a discussion in many campaigns.