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Posted on 01/13/2008 6:06:24 PM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets
Crazed Veterans Spark Nationwide Crime Wave
That's the theme of a front page article in today's New York Times: "Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles." The article reports on what must have been a major effort by the Times to comb through news reports from across the country, identifying and tabulating instances where servicemen who returned from Iraq or Afghanistan were charged with some form of homicide. The Times summarizes the results of its research:
Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.” Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.
The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war.
The Times article goes on just about forever--it is nine pages long on the web--but it consists almost entirely of anecdotes about a handful of the 121 alleged crimes. The stories are indeed sad, and some of the soldiers and veterans involved no doubt did suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Still, the Times' approach is astonishingly unsystematic, especially since the paper takes seriously the idea that the U.S. military may be responsible for the supposed crime wave:
At various times, the question of whether the military shares some blame for these killings gets posed. When it is not recounting stories of crimes committed by servicemen, always from a point of view sympathetic to the idea that service in a theater of war was a contributing factor--"plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, [Mr. Sepi] often needed alcohol to fall asleep"--the paper waxes pretentious:
Decades of studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, gun ownership, child abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse — and criminality. On a less scientific level, such links have long been known. “The connection between war and crime is unfortunately very ancient,” said Dr. Shay, the V.A. psychiatrist and author. “The first thing that Odysseus did after he left Troy was to launch a pirate raid on Ismarus. Ending up in trouble with the law has always been a final common pathway for some portion of psychologically injured veterans.”
Now put yourself in the place of a newspaper editor. Suppose you are asked to evaluate whether your paper should run a long article on a nationwide epidemic of murders committed by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan--a crime wave that, your reporter suggests, constitutes a "cross-country trail of death and heartbreak." Suppose that the reporter who proposes to write the article says it will be a searing indictment of the U.S. military's inadequate attention to post-traumatic stress disorder. Suppose further that you are not a complete idiot.
Given that last assumption, I'm pretty sure your first question will be: "How does the murder rate among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan compare to the murder rate for young American men generally?" Remarkably, this is a question the New York Times did not think to ask. Or, if the Times asked the question and figured out the answer, the paper preferred not to report it.
As of 2005, the homicide rate for Americans aged 18-24, the cohort into which most soldiers fall, was around 27 per 100,000. (The rate for men in that age range would be much higher, of course, since men commit around 88% of homicides. But since most soldiers are also men, I gave civilians the benefit of the doubt and considered gender a wash.)
Next we need to know how many servicemen have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. A definitive number is no doubt available, but the only hard figure I've seen is that as of last October, moe than 500,000 U.S. Army personnel had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Other sources peg the total number of personnel from all branches of the military who have served in the two theaters much higher, e.g. 750,000, 650,000 as of February 2007, or 1,280,000. For the sake of argument, let's say that 700,000 soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors have returned to the U.S. from service in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Do the math: the 121 alleged instances of homicide identified by the Times, out of a population of 700,000, works out to a rate of 17 per 100,000--quite a bit lower than the overall national rate of around 27.
But wait! The national rate of 27 homicides per 100,000 is an annual rate, whereas the Times' 121 alleged crimes were committed over a period of six years. Which means that, as far as the Times' research shows, the rate of homicides committed by military personnel who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan is only a fraction of the homicide rate for other Americans aged 18 to 24. Somehow, the Times managed to publish nine pages of anecdotes about the violence wreaked by returning servicemen without ever mentioning this salient fact.
I've got a suggestion for the editors of the Times: next time, why don't they undertake a research project to identify all murders and other forms of homicide committed (or allegedly committed--no finding of guilt necessary!) by people who are, or recently have been, employed by newspaper companies? They could write a long article in which selected crimes allegedly committed by reporters, editors and typesetters are recounted in detail, accompanied by speculation about whether newspaper employment was a contributing factor in each case. No need to wonder whether reporters, editors and typesetters commit homicide at a rate any different from the rest of the population--a single murder is too many!
Here's another idea: the Times' story on veterans' crimes repeatedly focused on the role of alcoholism, which the paper associated with the stresses of military service. How about a survey that compares alcoholism rates among reporters and soldiers? Just on a hunch, I'll wager a dollar that the alcoholism rate for reporters is higher.
It's bad enough that the New York Times smears our military personnel when they are serving overseas. Can't they at least leave them alone once they return home?
nyt is such a propaganda machine
Remember all those movies and TV shows where all the Vietnam vets were drug-crazed murderers? The lefties at the Times are re-living their youth.
Let the propaganda games begin !
The New York Slimes, doing what it does best -— slime those better than themselves..
It will be good to see the “Grey Lady” finally die a painful bankrupt death....
Many Americans don’t deserve or properly exercise the freedoms won and preserved by the sacrifice and blood shed by the military...
NONE of our freedoms were won or earned by “negotiation”...
The time has come, to address the most despicable enemy of all - the enemy within..
“Decades of studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of... gun ownership...”!!!!!
“Decades of studies on the problems of Vietnam veterans have established links between combat trauma and higher rates of... gun ownership...”!!!!!
I don’t know about you, but I gotta admit, as a baby killer from way back, that’s the first time I’ve ever been accused of having a higher rate of gun ownership. I swear the only ‘psychological injuries’ I can think of are when I read drivell like that from another pencil necked journalist outta Columbia! Just Damn
They would be more productive in documenting crimes by crazed illegal aliens...Duly noted and seconded...
Just gotta be a promo for Winter Soldier II...and the New Yuk Times is flying solo now, they don’t have Dan Rather or Walter Kronkite to back up their lies
Very difficult topic for me to address without using profanity (moderator still watching me) or firearms!
I guess I'm just a freaking crazed lunatic -- ready to go on an "intentional manslaughter" rampage...
Hmmmm......sounds like a good idea!
I guess all us murderous vets can use the New York Slimes story as a cover to plead "insanity defense"....
< /sarcasm>
now they want to create wild fantasies of insane bands of war veterans going around America raping and pillaging in the fashion of Genghis Khan.
Is that pronounced “Jengis?” Don’t you love the ene-media?
This is EXACTLY the type of coverage that followed World War II—”crazed veterans” commit crimes. . .
and Vietnam.
So it’s expected that the tabloid media (which now encompasses all the MSM) will riot with the same kind of coverage.
It’s bunk, and it should be exposed for the kind of bunk that it is.
This is a slander of every vet.
I wonder if there’s any case for a class action for libel and slander of vets as a special class. There is surely economic and social harm to individual vets as a direct result of such calumny. False lights slander.
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yes, since the Armed forces screen out druggies and criminals, the murder rate should be lower...
But the Army has a much higher percentage of minorities than civilian population. And some of these minorities have a higher murder rate than the general population.
More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says
When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.
Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.
Wanted for Murder in New York City.
Chicago wanted for Murder
Philadelphia wanted for murder
San Francisco wanted for Murder
New Orleans wanted for Murder
Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC
FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals)
There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.
Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article. Also this article from the LA Times.
To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.
All that said the true number of criminal aliens is far higher than is revealed by criminal aliens in prisons. Most are simply waived through the courts.DHS Secretary Chertoff, has been quoted as warning that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. See also here and here
Not just journalism. Almost every “detective” show on TV had a killer or other criminal who was a crazed / drugged out [or both] ‘Nam vet for the villain.
Yeah, but 1987 was FIFTEEN YEARS after the last U.S troops were pulled out of ‘Nam. That’s a hell of a long time to mainstream.
I can’t believe anyone still buys that rag.
You know JMack, along with being amazingly biased, and declining financially, our papers are declining in the level of presentation as well. You’ve spotted a good case in point. We could chalk it up to bias, but it might just as well be a case of the writer and the editorial director of just not knowing English well enough to catch the obvious mistake.
What hits the streets is none the less an article that does include gun ownership as a crime. Is it a calculated inclusion to further cast a shadow on the very idea of owning a gun? Perhaps. It might also be proof of a couple of ignoramouses who didn’t know their arse from a hole in the ground.
Either way, it’s very unfortunate, because you were dead on target to point that out. It is not a crime to own a gun and they should know that.
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