Republican 'talking points' are meant to distort the truth

[Judi Lynn]

Article Last Updated: 10/29/2005 03:42:06 PM

Republican 'talking points' are meant to distort the truth
By Paul Rolly


An e-mail that instructs Republican sympathizers how to respond to critics of the war in Iraq came my way recently and it deserves a response.

It starts out by noting there were 39 combat-related killings in Iraq in January, compared to 35 murders in Detroit during the same month, and "that's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq."

It's a theme that has been stated in various versions on Fox, talk radio, conservative blogs and other media trying to quiet the continuing discontent toward the war.

Sometimes, the city being compared is New York, or Los Angeles, or Miami, but it's always a city containing several million people. The analogists never point out they are comparing a G.I. population of about 150,000 to a population of millions.

But even if you ignore that flaw in the logic, what does the murder rate in Detroit have to do with the wisdom of attacking Iraq in the way we did? It's an attempt to deflect attention from issues that should be discussed among serious people.
(snip/...)

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3164758

[I_Make_Mistakes]

1. Same old stupid, irrational comparisons. First off, it is probably

not any kind of real statistician, remember, the more people are killed on US roads per year than in Iraq. Check out that population disclosure (it includes children thru seniors) but it is easy for the uninformed and uneducated to grasp the illogical comparison, without any thought.

I have a fairly astute, not college educated (I say that because college does require you to look around more), who can talk about anything but politics.

She is just so resigned to the fact that she is no one in this country, and has no control over politics that she doesn't want to go there. I have been working on her, for a year now, thank God I live in a Blue state.

[JohnnyRingo]

3. Back in the 60s they used the traffic fatality comparison

50,000 people a year were killed on the highways every year.
In 10 years "only" 50,000 soldiers were killed total.

This is what we get with our recycled White House of Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Tired, illogical, and recycled rhetoric.

Didn't work then....

[I_Make_Mistakes]

4. I am sorry but RW e-mails I got prior to the election (forwarded

by friends, covered in a Christian message) were the traffic fealties.)) They used this stuff in the last 2 yrs., but they will get theirs in my mind. You either pay now or later.

My point was, 250,000,000 plus Americans (I don't know the number of completely in capacitate (not able to drive or be driven) was the comparison to 130,000, troops in Iraq.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Let's bring them home to Detroit

The murder and kidnapping situation in Iraq is much worse than Detroit, or any American city. They only count the casualties of American soldiers unlucky enough to draw duty outside the Green Zone.

If it's so safe, why doesn't Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Limbaugh go over and shake a few hands to show the folks back home how positive things there are? They would if they could.

A comeback to the Detroit analogy is "in two and a half years things in Iraq have deteriorated significantly, why are we staying this course?"

I like the new TV ad that shows the flag draped coffins and asks the president:
"Mr. Bush, isn't there another way to bring the troops home?"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. In Republican world Iraqis don't count or exist except for purple fingers.

[Judi Lynn]

6. You're right. The safest thing for them to do is become invisable,

stay out of the line of vision of the occupying forces, and vote when they are told to. Didn't the Republicans go on and on about those damned purple fingers? Good god. AS if they ever had any real choices after the neocons decided to rape and plunder Iraqis' only homeland.

[Spinzonner]

7. The answer to that is

"Why are you trivializing the deaths of our military ?"