Posted on 01/03/2007 6:19:30 PM PST by pissant
The Associated Press released an interesting set of statistics (host link stored for future ref) a couple of days ago that I would suppose were designed to suck away any optimism any fools who still support the mission in Iraq might have (bolds are mine):
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Government officials on Monday reported that 16,273 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police died violent deaths in 2006, a figure larger than an independent Associated Press count for the year by more than 2,500.
The tabulation by the Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior, showed that 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers were killed in the violence that raged in the country last year.
The Associated Press accounting, gleaned from daily news reports from Baghdad, arrived at a total of 13,738 deaths.
Pretty grim, isn't it? And this is for "violence that raged in the (whole) country."
Man, what a downer. I mean, this is an honest-to-goodness Grade A bona fide quagmire.
Oops -- I started digging into US murder statistics, and what I found made me less depressed about Iraq, and more concerned about the US.
Let's put this in perspective. Below are 10 listings for US cities and years. Your mission to accomplish (so to speak), is to guess whether each particular city's murder rate in the year identified was higher or lower than the "violent death rate" in Iraq (which is, from all appearances, all-inclusive). Let's use the Iraqi government's higher number of 16,273 just for the heck of it, even though the Associated Press will "surely" be bothered that I'm exaggerating the level of violence compared to what their records show (somehow, I think they'll get over it). Using the government's figure means that Iraq's violent death rate in 2006 was 56.49 per 100,000 residents (16,273 deaths, and a population per Wiki of 28,807,000).
So here are the US cities and the related years:
1. New York City - 1990 2. Washington, DC - 1991 3. Gary, IN - 2005 4. Detroit, MI - 1991 5. Compton, CA - 2005 6. New Orleans, LA - 2006 7. New Orleans, LA - 2004 8. New Orleans, LA - 2003 9. Atlanta, GA - 1973 10. E. St. Louis, IL - 2004
Try not to peek ahead.
......
...... Done?
SURPRISE -- Every city and year listed had a higher murder rate than Iraq in 2006 -- except (surprise again) New York City in 1990 (Gotham's worst year on record for murder).
The murder rates were as follows (see related graph at UPDATE 2 below):
1. New York City - 1990; 30.7 (2,245 murders; population 7,322,000) 2. Washington, DC - 1991; 83.1 (482 murders; population 598,000 [1]) 3. Gary, IN - 2005; 58.0 4. Detroit, MI - 1991; roughly 60 5. Compton, CA - 2005; 67.1 6. New Orleans, LA - 2006; 67.5 (154 murders; population 228,000 [2]) 7. New Orleans, LA - 2004; 59.6 (275 murders; population 461,115 [3]) 8. New Orleans, LA - 2003; 57.7 9. Atlanta, GA - 1973; 57.7 (271 murders; population 470,000 [1]) 10. E. St. Louis, IL - 2004; 63.4
Does this mean Iraq is a walk in the park? Of course not.
Does this mean that Iraq is a hopeless quagmire that cannot be won? It would appear, at a minimum, that anyone who believes that carries a heavy burden of proof.
And to personalize it, dear reader, unless you've gone on record in favor of abandoning the residents of the cities listed above to their own devices at the times they were (or are) extremely dangerous places to be, it would seem that you have no basis for contending that we should do that to the people of Iraq.
Sorry! I was thinking of another post about Bush replacing General Casey!
Wow...
Good thing you weren't at 3000 yards or he woulda pegged ya ;-)
I dont know that they tarnish the job in inflating the numbers, but they do inflate the numbers to make it seem that all casualties are the equivilant of dieing to an IED or a sniper in order to horrify us against the war.
Where is the outrage over accidental death in an auto in the US? Thousands die going to the store for milk or whatever.
I'd rather die trying to accomplish something important.
Does that make any sense?
Why? If the MSM can pretend that 3000 dead warriors (a third of which died in non-combat situations) is the worst thing to happen to America since Ronald Reagan won the cold war, then we shopuld shove their quagmire shit right back down their throats.
Why? The population of Iraq is 25 mil. Closer to LA and NY than to the US.
I thought sumthin was fishy.
better yet, how much can we keep in our pockets.
Do you mind? We're trying to skew statistics, here. It's a nice way to unwind after a long day of pointing out how the MSM plays with numbers for propaganda value. ;-)
Well, our job is to honor them eternally, with prayers and monuments to their heroics.
Skeered the crap out of me
Okay. I can take a joke.
Read the article, please.
The whole point here is that numbers and stats can be skewed one way or the other. What we dearly need in this country is CONTEXT
Well my goodness- whatever happened to the 'reliable' Lancet report (which was riddled with vitriolic agenda driven lies) of 650,000 violent deaths in Iraq that they claim have happened? What? Was that a lie? Gosh- didn't see that comming http://sacredscoop.com
Great post. Thanks.
The authors of this are insulting the basic intelligence of anyone subjected to this argument. AP was called out on the biased moral relativism comparison, and roundly criticized, they took their lumps, revised their story to remove the comparison, and will soon enough again insult their readership with further garbage.
This garbage is not less, but much more egregious in it's duplicity. It's false at face value, no sane person would put their weight behind this argument. FR might or might not be a platform for partisan shrilling, but as a long time member here I'll call a spade a spade.
Ask Steel Wolf. He probably has a copy under his pillow.
eleanor clift today claims it stands at 655,000
Proven higher density of population equates to more violent deaths. By not factoring in rural US areas while the same is factored in for Iraq, the assessment becomes worthless.
OTOH, provide Baghdad statistics with an equitably populated US city and let's see those comparisons.
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