I read this on a “friend’s blog”:http://www.xanga.com/DeGentleGiant today and just had to post it here for amusement’s sake:
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.
Not a complete assessment of the situation, mind you, but a valid point, given that the death rate is one reason that has been cited to pull out of Iraq. Proponents of pulling out would probably quote bigger reasons for leaving the sand and bringing the boys home.
Personally, I think that now that we’re there, total commitment is the only thing that is going to keep the violence from following us back to our shores.
I’m proud of our boys!
Valid point, indeed. Found you via GCP-good to meet you!
Yep, I’d rather our boys fight the battle over THERE, than have the battle
here on our soil. We need to keep praying!
I moved out of D.C. last year … aside from danger issues … after 40 years of it, I don’t miss the taxes, traffic, congestion, madness, rudeness.
uh, recall that the US only declares it a casualty if you die in the country in combat. If you are on a medical helicopter flying out of Iraq when you die, you aren’t in that number. Nor does that number include the 100,000 or so Iraqis that have died. Did you forget them?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/19/60minutes/main656756.shtml
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/07/unnamed_and_unnoticed.html
When we first invaded Iraq, every night as I went to sleep, I thought, ‘thank goodness I’m not an Iraqi mother trying to keep her children safe and fed.’ Didn’t you feel the same way, watching the footage of Marines banging down doors?
I didn’t know any Iraqis were threatening me. They were minding their own business under their dictator that we used to help. Now how are they going to bring violence to our shores?