How does this happen?

According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, only 28% of Americans realize that over 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in the Iraq war. The Iraq War made up less than 15% of all news stories in 2007. More Americans tracked the stories about Heath Ledger's death than they did the Iraq War in the first few weeks of 2008. Although the story I link doesn't mention it, I would venture to guess that most Americans don't even realize the numbers of Iraqis that have been killed since the start of the war. According the the website IraqBodyCount.org, approximately 90,000 Iraqis have died as a direct result of violence from the war. This number doesn't account for people who have died from indirect consequences from the war. Some reports indicate that over 400,000 Iraqis have died. How does this stop making news? How does this stop being the headline every single day and every single night? How do we as Americans forget that we're involved in a war that doesn't seem to be improving our lives at all, which I believe was one of President Bush's claims? I don't feel any safer as a result of this war, and I'm quite certain that while most Iraqis are thankful Saddam Hussein is out of power I'm not certain that they feel the invasion was worth the high cost they've had to pay in lost lives, lost infrastructure, and lost freedom. Ironic isn't it? We're supposedly over there to protect freedoms.