On Aug 8, 2005, at 3:37, Jean Nathan wrote:
If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in
the
Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of
2112
deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate in
Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are about
25%
more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol (which has
some
of the strictest gun control laws in the nation) than you are in
Iraq.
Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington D.C.
Yes, well... Look at it from another point of view... I don't know
about the US allies, but the US troops (majority) are not conscripts;
they're in the Army/Navy/Marines because they chose to be. They may not
have signed up with the idea they'd die or be maimed (physically or
emotionally) in Iraq, in exchange for a chance of decent education,
but, they're there more or less voluntarily.
What your "thought for the day" compares them to is *civillians*, who
neither signed up nor are paid for taking risks with their lives. So,
let's compare civillians (in DC) to civillians (in Iraq), and *their*
chances of survival; the numbers are apt to look quite different then.
And, BTW, I consider the Iraqi "troops" - the main target, currently -
civillians also; most of them are mowed down before they're trained for
battle; some even before they sign up, as they're standing in line.
If you want to compare apples and apples instead of apples and oranges,
you could try comparing deaths of DC policemen and firemen to those of
troops in Iraq.
Your "thought for the day" sounds to me like something Dick Cheney
might have said at a Republican rally; facile, blurring the edges of
truth, distasteful... but in keeping with his general "philosophy"
(no, I'm not flaming anyone or wanting to start a flame war. But I'm
with Donne on the "every man's death diminishes me", and I hate it;
*hate it*, when anyone other than a suicide bomber gets killed or
injured)
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
