"What's the big deal? We had more policemen killed in this country...?"

[kentuck]

"...than the number of troops killed in Iraq." I heard a C-SPAn caller say this the other morning. This was the type of crapola that Rush was putting out before he was busted. But how do you respond to such comments? It's like saying that the 58,000 plus that were killed in Viet Nam was no big deal because we had more people than that killed in accidents here at home over the same time period. I guess it doesn't matter that most of these people that are dying in this war are young and healthy and probably would still be living if they were not put in a predicament to lose their lives?

[silverchair]

1. well, i'd like to ask that caller this

why don't you tell that face to face with the soldiers' families?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/04/sprj.irq.helicopter.families/index.html

[mediaman007]

10. Loss on our investment

These are highly trained people. Just because a number of them die, it is not insignificant. Our country has invested time, money and effort in these people. As soldiers, they cannot be just written off as a bad investment. They deserve an opportunity to do what they have been trained to do.

[jonoboy]

2. just tell them to go and take someone elses place

if it's no big deal. And when they refuse and let someone elses kid die call them the traitor that they are.

[Serenades]

3. you can't . . .

. . . win an argument with an idiot. If someone truly uses that as an excuse there is no point to argue seeing that they are brain dead.

[kentuck]

4. Let's just go to the common denominator....

Good point, Serenades! Welcome to DU! :)

[gratuitous]

5. True enough, but . . .

If there isn't a prompt refutation of this "logic," some gullible persons might adopt this stupid attitude without realizing how stupid it is. It's important, I think, to keep this from getting too deeply lodged in the public consciousness. If we meet this lie effectively every time it's promulgated, the assclowns who repeat it will have to find something else stupid to say.

[Salviati]

17. Exactly, you aren't arguing with the idiot,

but rather with the other people that are listening to what the idiot has to say. If all you hear is idiots mouthing off, then maybe the drivel stops sounding so idiotic...

[elfwitch]

12. exactly

Because when you argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

[niyad]

6. "it is impossible to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person"

try to keep that dictum in mind when dealing with the brain-dead, saves wear and tear on the nerves.

[Brian Sweat]

7. Just print out multiple copies of this

and hand one to anyone that says something like this.

[soupkitchen]

8. Didn't Ann Coulter refer to Iraqi war deaths, as the Military getting

their hair messed up?

[tom_paine]

9. No, Annthrax said "hair mussed"

Consciously or unconsciously she was emulating Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) from "Dr. Strangelove".

Jusat another tiny bit of proof that the lunatics are running the asylum...

[Brucey]

11. I've seen this comparison, or similar ones, all over the place.

Do repugs have some kind of network whereby they set up letters to the editor, call-ins, etc.? Their memes all come out at once, like robots spitting out their hypnotic gaggles. I guess a "few" deaths is okay to them. What makes me even more furious is how glib and nonchalant they are about the deaths of civilians, but get all teary-eyed if a US soldier is killed. Why should I care more about a US soldier than an innocent civilian? Shouldn't we care about everybody on earth? Particularly innocent bystanders? What's the difference what piece of land they happen to live on? I am a citizen of the world and want peace everywhere. I am sad when anyone dies.

[charlie]

15. Yes, of course

How many times have you heard word-for-word Rushisms from your officemates? They get their minds wrapped around a pre-fab talking point on an issue and they know it's settled because they've got the quick answer. It's clear, inarguable, and obvious to anyone but the most obtuse liberal idiot. Best of all, they get stroked for coming to the sensible conclusions themselves, makes them feel smart and a breed apart. It's been going on for years.

[Bridget Burke]

13. How many children drown by accident every year?

About a thousand (quick results). Unsupervised swimming pools, mishaps at the beach--so many tragedies. About a hundred die in bathtub mishaps alone.

So, what was the big fuss when the woman here in Texas drowned her brood a few years ago? There were only 5 of them.

(No, I'm not agreeing with this--although I don't agree that Prison was the best place to put her.)

[Nailzberg]

14. We also had more people killed by impaired drivers than by terrorists.

So by that logic we shouldn't worry about terrorists.

In reality, we know that both drunk driving and terrorism are threatening matters needing to be addressed.

Just as we should mourn the loss of each police officer and soldier who died serving us, and we should do whatever we can as a society to keep them as safe a possible, and only put them in harms way when absolutely necessary. Not pick one over the other, but value them both.

Why do the freeps always play this number game? They don't even play it well.

[patdem]

16. Actually I love this logic..'gee people die everyday, what's the big deal'

In order to get young men to go to war it MUST be glorified and romanticized. The more the repukes take this line the fewer the number of young people willing to put their life on the line since they will be treated like any other 'traffic accident'.

We honor the war dead so we can get future generations to fight and die for us!!

[seasat]

18. Republicans are stupid with statistics.

There are 850,000 police in the US. 165 are killed each year in the line of duty (Link). There are about 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq. So far, 252 have been killed as combat casualties. That makes a rate of 19 per 100,000 per year for police and 194 per 100,000 for US soldiers in Iraq so far. Soldiers are dying at 10x the rate of police. The figures for an entire year would be even more gruesome and the rate will probably increase unless Shrub kisses butt at the UN and gets some other countries involved.

[spindoctor]

20. Here is the original Limbaugh transcript that started it

This is actually the version I emailed back to good ole Rush. My comments are in brackets

-----------------------------------------

Put Iraq Casualties In Proper Perspective

July 21, 2003

Folks, we're getting a daily death update out of Iraq, and we're hearing slogans like, "One a day," and "Our troops are being slaughtered," from the Democrats, as their willing accomplices in the press try to concoct this notion that the casualty rate over there is outrageous and intolerable.

The following statistics come from the Centers for Disease Control website: On a daily basis, on average, 10 Americans die by drowning, and nine Americans die by fire in their homes. 14 Americans die by pedestrian accidents. 27 Americans die in falls. On average, 50 Americans a day are murdered. 118 die in auto accidents, and 25 people die from A.I.D.S. every day, on average. Yesterday, two Americans died in battle in Iraq.

We are at war. The war isn't over, but it's time that somebody put some of this in perspective. The loss of a single member of the military is one too many, and what I'm saying here is not intended to minimize the losses that we've suffered, nor is it an attempt to defend Bush or our policy <[liar, liar, pants on fire -S>]. What I want to do here is simply analyze the reporting and politicizing. There is a lack of perspective and proportion in the reporting of the casualties over there, and all you have to do to expose it, is examine some facts <[why is it that when I hear this man use the word 'fact' that I start paying attention? - S>].

W's Approval Rating Has Withstood Assault

Annualize the numbers and you find that on average, 3,400 Americans drown every year, 3,400 die by fire, 5,200 Americans die in pedestrian accidents every year, 10,000 Americans die in falls every year, 43,000 die in auto accidents every year. 15,000 Americans are murdered every year, and 8,000 Americans die every year from A.I.D.S. One or two Americans a day are dying in Iraq. So why are we getting a daily Iraq death update when we don't get daily drowning death updates or fire death updates or pedestrian updates, accidents, this kind, when the numbers are clearly far greater than what is happening in Iraq? The answer is obvious.

<[Alright, let's put it in proper perspective. There are 250MM americans in the US, there are 100,000 of us in Iraq (if that). Therefore, the number of casualties in Iraq needs to be multiplied by 2,500 if you want to compare it to deaths here in the US. If this war was fought on our own soil, we now would have lost roughly 400,000 of our countrymen. Do you really want to apply this kind of logic, Rush? - S>]

We lost as many Americans in one airplane on September 11 as we've lost in all of Iraqi Freedom. We've lost almost 20 times as many Americans in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center <[Yea? You were talking about Americans dying in Iraq, where it is us doing the attacking. What exactly does this have to do with the subject at hand? - S>]. The media doesn't want to replay those tragedies <[Those tragedies have been replayed more times than the Rocky Horror Picture Show. What are you talking about, Rush? - S>], but they are perfectly content to demoralize our troops with today's death count, of one or two, and how the total compares to Desert Storm. No matter what the media tells you <[Hate to bring it up, but you are the media, Rush - S>], this war is not like Vietnam and they're constantly using that as their base point, or the frame of reference.

Dick Morris, who just wrote that Bush is invincible and brilliant is now saying he's never seen anyone's approval ratings cave so quickly <[One can't be wrong all the time. - S>]. Morris has noted that even when his former client, Bill Clinton, was impeached for lying to a grand jury and the nation, his job approval rating still hovered at 62%, but Bush's approval, which hovered in the mid-80s after the Iraqi war, has tumbled to 53% in the latest Zogby poll. Morris has chalked up the slide to the one-a-day death count of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but says the president is also a victim of his own success in the war on terrorism <[Define success? Do we have anything actually accomplished? - S>]. This war was thrust upon us and this president has gone about the business of winning it. Still, I'm amazed the president's approval numbers are still at 53%. Since Florida 2000, there has been a constant drumbeat of criticism of Bush personally, on his credibility, on his intelligence, on everything. What is this notion that we need a liberal media outlet because people don't have a way of being heard? <[If Bush's approval rating is still at 53% and it surprises even you, then obviously not enough people are properly informed. - S>]


on edit: (ok, maybe brackets was not a good idea). They're visible now though. :D

[markses]

19. Number of California police officers killed in the line of duty: 133

Timeframe: 1991-2000.

California is roughly the same size as Iraq. I expect that california may have more than 130,000 peace officers. Perhaps these demented lovers of false comparisons might explain that statistic....

Source:
http://www.camemorial.org/1991.htm