More people die in accidents in New York than die in war in Iraq...

[kentuck]

Another of these morons came up with this Limbaugh BS this AM on C-SPAN. As if the people that died in New York had bullet proof vests, lived each moment of their lives in fear, had families that worried themselves sick every day that their loved one might not come home, and all were young with many young children and young wives left behind, being shot at every day, living in unreal conditions, in a strange land, eating rations twice a day, suffering in the heat and sand, as if all the names on the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington DC is really insignificant because more people died in car accidents, drownings, etc in the same time period. What crap!

[papau]

1. old folks die, so this explains young folks deaths in Iraq?

At what point does the word "lie" get used by the US Media to describe the con job of right wing GOP spokepersons? - of right wing controlled media? - or is all US media right wing GOP controlled, or chosing to act like they are right wing GOP controlled?

[soup]

2. another 'slight' difference

The people in New York weren't deployed there by a megalomaniac and his merry band of warmongers.

[speckledgator]

3. Oh lordy

that is flawless logic! gawwwwd

[kayell]

4. He's also WRONG

unless he simply doesn't count any of the Iraqis who have died in Bushes War. See NY city mortality statistics here. http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/vs99/table34c.htm
Notice that the fifth largest killer in all age groups/all race groups is AIDS at 1,975 (1999 figures, but probably similar to now). That is considerably less than the death toll in Iraq.

Of course a rushbot freeper may only count Iraqi deaths as 3/5 of a "real" human, but even then his figures are wrong. I wonder what the current valuation of an Iraqi life is?

It is so damn easy to believe the basic figures behind a statement like this that even DUers can get sucked in. ALWAYS check their statements every which way. They LIE, they ALL LIE, and we will hear this one for months now. :grr:

Added: This is a guess, (but a good one, give the enormous jump in accident deaths that would be required) that 2001 accident deaths PLUS WTC deaths are also well under the death toll in Iraq. And this isn't even counting the Iraq military killed - just "coalition" forces and Iraqi civilians.

Reported Iraqi civilian deaths
Minimum 7390 Maximum 9193
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Coalition deaths through 10/13
387
http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

[kayell]

14. Too late to edit

Please don't take this mention of the statistics to mean that I think the Iraq invasion and deaths would be ok if outnumbered by NY deaths. I fully agree with others here that the "logic" is ridiculous, but often having the actual figures to shoot down their basic premise can cut an argument off short.

[jobycom]

15. Exactly, and no one even counts THEIR soldiers

Estimates of Iraqi military casualties have been above a hundred thousand people. That's a lot of widows, orphans and parents with shattered dreams and hearts. A whole lot. I can't imagine forgiving a nation that invaded my land and killed my kids, even if my kids were in the military.

And our soldiers volunteer. As far as I understand it,Iraqi soldiers had no choice. So our soldiers are going willingly into harm's way, and their's are being forced to march into the fire.

Americans have a difficult time of thinking of a human life as a human life. We ignore the genocide--perhaps the worst in history-- that our nation was built on. We ignore the 2 million Viet Namese we killed. We ignore the 250,000 or more who died in our first Iraqi invasion. We ignore the tens to hundreds of thousands we killed in Afghanistan (though we still haven't gotten either of our original targets). We only count American casualties, and sometimes civilians.

[kayell]

19. Absolutely

and until this American way of looking at people in other countries, cultures, colors etc. as the Other and insignificant, we are doomed as people to be regarded by the world as heartless, immature and dangerous.

It is so ironic that this worst perpetrators of this consider the US a "Christian" nation.

[kentuck]

5. And your odds are much better when people aren't shooting at you...

the threat of death is a constant in war...not so, in NYC...(although some might argue with that)

[ablbodyed]

6. And what about %'s?...

Of people in NewYork to accidental deaths, and soldiers deaths to #'s of soldiers deployed

[sendero]

7. yeah...

... and in any given year, more than ten times as many people die in traffic accidents as did at the WTC bombing. What's his point?

[gulliver]

8. GOP minimizes the sacrifices by American troops.

Some in the GOP will say anything to help Bush, no matter how callous and idiotic. If they can't distinguish between people dying serving their country (in an occupation and war that got us less than nothing) and routine accidents, they are to be pitied.

Can anyone doubt that some Republicans would simply rather that deaths and woundings in Iraq were not reported? Maybe one named Bush even.

[izzie]

9. Well then it is OK if her parents are killed and also a son and sister?

Mine have die so why not hers? It is no big thing we all go some day.Maybe she belongs to that 'smart' congressman? What did he say that it was worth a few deaths. This sounds like terror and how they think.

[kanrok]

10. 98,000 people lose their lives each year to medical negligence

but BushCo wants to eliminate our right to be compensated through tort "reform". Yep, their logic is sound.

[Snellius]

11. More people die in car accidents than died on 9/11, thus ...

Why don't we declare a war on automobiles?

[spinbaby]

16. not a bad idea

We SHOULD declare war on automobiles. We can do this by building more public transportion so fewer people would have to ride in expensive and dangerous automobiles. Saves gas, too.

[Mari333]

12. Denial! this arse you heard hasnt seen their child die in agony

or witnessed an ounce of trauma in their life...I detest warmongering fauxgenerals who sit in their LazyBoys and order pizza and flip channels from FoxSports to FoxNews , living in their precious secluded world where they cannot fathom actual war, actual death, actual suffering, actual grief..these people play games in their heads to keep themselves in denial, and avoid confrontation with real horror..they make it into an abstract phenomenon, and cheer for war like they cheer for touchdowns..
Wasting precious oxygen on this planet, these people, while young men and women and innocent civilians die for nothing.
These people must be governed by NO emotion and have as much compassion in them as a rock. I would hate to be them, what lousy, unfulfilling lives they must lead if they cannot even feel empathy or kindness in their lives.
end of rant. Good morning,Iraqnam.

[Skittles]

13. young wives left behind

please, please remember that WOMEN DO SERVE IN THE MILITARY.

[kentuck]

21. Absolutely right Skittles....

Although the majority left behind are young wives instead of young husbands. But it is only a matter of semantics.

[Bandit]

17. I guess Iraqis aren't people

What Bullshit How many Iraqis die in Iraq compared to Americans in New York? I don't think anyone knows that answer so the question is bullshit.

[MrBenchley]

18. Also....

Halliburton isn't corruptly cashing in on accidents in NYC....nor are the accidents caused by DELIBERATE LIES from an unelected drunk and his thug.

When they start trotting out arguments like this they're REALLY desperate.

[qb]

20. Annual deaths/100,000: U.S. troops: 308, U.S. traffic accidents: 22

Here's my analysis:
Days since "Mission Accomplished": 167
U.S. Troop fatalities since then: 197 (http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx)
Approximate number of troops: 140,000

Annual troop fatality rate per 100,000: 308

Traffic fatalities for the year 2000 (http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/ncsa/tsf2000/2000ovrfacts.pdf)

Annual traffic fatality rate per 100,000 population: 15
Annual traffic fatality rate per 100,000 licensed drivers: 22

also, from http://www.personalmd.com/news/n1118063355.shtml
Annual U.S. firearm fatalities per 100,000 (in 1997): 12.1

The right-wing clowns trying to minimize the impact of coalition U.S. fatalities in Iraq like to compare these numbers to deaths in an area of the U.S. with a population similar to that of Iraq or Baghdad (such as traffic fatalities in NYC or gun deaths in a major city). They are deliberately misleading their audience by using the wrong populations their analyses. If you are looking at fatalities in U.S. soldiers in Iraq, then the population in question is the 140,000 or so U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and not the total population of Iraq (or Baghdad, for that matter). Likewise, a traffic fatality rate should be compared to the population that uses the roads, which is less than the total population, but greater than the number of licensed drivers. Therefore, the applicable death rate is somewhere between 15 and 22.

I could only find U.S. traffic statistics, but I think even if you assume the NYC rate is a lot higher than the national average (which it probably isn't), the right-wingers are full of sh*t.

[mmonk]

22. Great justification for this war, eh?

The intellectual vacuum in America still exits.

[Kusala]

23. how many die via cancer or other vs. the 3,000 that died on 9/11

but how many hundreds of thousands of people have to be killed to satisfy revenge, when the rednecks will stop trotting out "Have you forgotten" and "Everything changed after 9/11"?

[newyorkdork]

24. crazy repukes

I don't even believe that many people die inNY!