Posted on 01/14/2008 3:02:12 PM PST by Mobile Vulgus
In a long report published on Sunday the New York Times appears to be trying to promulgate the idea that our returning military vets cannot successfully reintegrate back into their communities and into "normal lives" after returning from the stress of active duty overseas. The Times seems to be saying that our veterans have become murderers and are so mentally wracked that coming home is difficult for them. Their entire report is written as if the rate of murders committed by returning veterans is shockingly high. But, a look at real statistics proves that vets are less likely to become murderers than the general population. The Times does a great job smearing our veterans as nutjobs, but does not do such a great job giving a balanced view of the real statistics.
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. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment -- along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems -- appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.
This 9 page (on the web) report gives us case after case and lots of generalities, such as...
"Everything is multicausational, of course,” Dr. Lifton continued. “But combat, especially in a counterinsurgency war, is such a powerful experience that to discount it would be artificial."
An obvious statement, but not a conclusive one by any means. This piece is filled with these sorts of comments alongside the specific stories of returning vets who did have breakdowns that led to murder. But the Times wants to make it seem as if our vets are universally a troubled lot.
But these killings provide a kind of echo sounding for the profound depths to which some veterans have fallen, whether at the bottom of a downward spiral or in a sudden burst of violence.
It is absolutely true that our current vets won't be different than past soldiers returning home. Some will not be able to get past their service, many more will be bothered by it but otherwise will be able to reintegrate back into society quite well, and still others will have no problems at all.
But, why did the Times focus on this aspect of vets turning into murderers back home? Was their motive merely to alert returning vets that they should feel no shame in getting help? If so, why go for such an over-the-top subject matter to do so? Or was their motive solely one of exploitation?
Whatever their motive, the organization Moving America Forward has issued a response to this Times piece that sets the record straight, proving that our vets are actually LESS likely to murder than the general U.S. population, undercutting the Times sensationalism.
The Times documentation of 121 potential killings out of more than 1.5 million veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), divided by 6 years of conflict results in a murder rate of just 1.34 incidents per 100,000 veterans per year.
That murder rate is far lower than the murder rate for the general population, demonstrating that the experiences of military service – including having served in Iraq and Afghanistan – actually made it less likely for returning veterans to commit murder once they returned home, than the general population.
Given a census-estimated population of the United States of 300,000,000 persons in this country as of October 2006, and FBI-compiled statistics of 17,399 homicide offenders for 2006, the murder rate of the general population was 5.80 offenders per 100,000 on average – and a rate of approximately 7.67 per 100,000 for men.
To recap, veteran murder rates put them at 1.34 incidents per 100,000 vets and the general population sees that statistic at 7.67 per 100,000. Apparently, we are safer with our veterans around than we are with the rest of the citizenry of the country!
So, why the focus on vets that turn into murderers, NYTimes? What else could it be that they have a desire to slag out returning troops, making them seem to be victims?
they loath everything and everyone, beginning with themselves.
The Marine murder story inspired them to create some news of a “wider trend.”
I am sure journalism schools and watchdogs like the Poynter Institute will cry foul on it.
Not.
It's an election year, and the incumbent Commander-in-Chief is a Republican. Seems obvious to me.
One tremendous pool for the best law enforcement officers we could get! Lessons learned character folks. How golden!
Someone did the math and again, expose the Slimes for what they are, shills for America's enemies.
PTSD, like Depleted Uranium or any other false causes are nothing more than slogans they carry on a sign hanging on their back. They are not concerned with the truth nor the Vet, they simply see this as another angle of attack.
Looks like MAF got involved, too!
Thirteen threads, still alive in blogland and dead for several days in MSM.
This photo is very touching.
Of course not, "normal lives" for NYT are cocaine addicted homosexuals.
Yet not a liberal voice in defense of the 50 million plus murdered, USA aborted babies in the name of Choice.
Everyone knows that widespread tobacco use destroyed this nation 168 years ago, or did they forget? Sh-theads
also debunked with stats here:
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1200191106.shtml
“What is so much incredibly worse about this story, however, is not the bias and not the predetermined outcome. It’s the blatant disregard for the facts, which fly in the face of this story and destroy the myth of US soldier as war-haunted homicidal maniac.
From the October 1, 2001 start of the Afghanistan war, that’s about 26,000 troops/month. To date (Jan 2008) that would give about 1.99 million.
That means that the NY Times 121 murders represent about a 7.08/100,000 rate.
Now the numbers on deployed troops are probably high - fewer troops from 2001 - 2003; I’d love a better number if someone has it.
But for initial purposes, let’s call the rate 10/100,000, about 40% higher than the calculated one.
Now, how does that compare with the population as a whole?
Turning to the DoJ statistics, we see that the US offender rate for homicide in the 18 - 24 yo range is 26.5/100,000.For 25 - 34, it’s 13.5/100,000.
In other words, the homicide rate for returning military personnel is dramatically lower — one-half to less than one-third as much as the general population. The entire thesis of the story is not only false but portrays the exact opposite of the truth!”
The Times is just showing the Kool-aid drinkers that there’s another generation of soldiers to urinate on.
Ouch! ROTFLMAO!
Yeah - and neither the murdered Marine not the Marine suspected of the murder has deployed on OIF or OEF. Not that it will stop the NYSlimes from insinuating otherwise.
The irony is that it’s the NYT who wants to bring these “murderers” home.
Of course, that stands to reason... They want to empty the jails too.
Lifton is co-editor of a new book titled “Crimes of War: Iraq.” The book is being published 35 years after Lifton and the same editorial team published the landmark book “Crimes of War” about Vietnam.
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Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist and historian who is the director of the Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College in Manhattan.
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The 2005 lecture was delivered by Dr. Robert Jay Lifton on “America and the Human Future: Surviving Vietnam, 9/11, and Iraq.”
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