So I guess Americans are just naturally the most criminal on earth.

[LynnTheDem]

After all, America has more citizens per capita in jails than any other nation on earth.

More Americans in US jails than Chinese in China's jails.

More Americans in US jails than Iraqis in Iraq's jails under Hussein.

More Americans in US jails than North Koreans in NK jails.

More Americans in US jails than Russians in Russian jails.

More Americans in US jails than Syrians in Syria's jails or Iranians in Iran's jails.

And we must be just more criminal than any other nation's citizens...after all, we've got more freedoms than the Chinese...the Syrians...the Iranians...

So how come the US has the highest percentage of it's own citizens behind bars than any nation on earth?

Just wondering.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1494726.stm
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/19/905

And an aside to bush & his remark that America has never done anything as bad as terrorists have; how 'bout the US-sponsored terrorist deaths of 30,000 Nicaraguan civilians for which the US was indicted & found guilty of & ordered to pay reparations?
http://www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2005/02/25/Columns/Negropontes.Dark.And.Bloody.Past-877800.shtml?norewrite200610202156&sourcedomain=www.browndailyherald.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Court_of_Justice
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0019831.html

And how many nukes have terrorists dropped onto civilian populations -with the stated goal of "terrorizing" the civilian population?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
So far I can only find info on the US, and none on the other terrorists.

And not to bother mentioning, of course, one of the largest slaughters in human history; America versus Native Americans.

So just what have the terrorists (the other ones) done that's worse than what's been done in America's name, bush?

Just wondering.

[sweetheart]

the failed war on drugs

The drugs war is the reason, it is so failed, that even with the prisons bursting,
the drugs problem is more widespread than before the war...

...and this pattern of starting wars to exacerbate conditions begs wonder that people
are so thick that they will pursue murder than question the morality of their escapades.

[razors edge]

1. It's in the water.

Seriously, I think the damn fluoride and other crap they "purify" our water with is Fng up a lot of people.

[treestar]

2. And we manage that without political crimes

In some of those other states, "insulting the head of state" is a crime.

[Truthiness Inspector]

3. Yeah

It also calls into question the reliability of statistics released from such countries.

[rurallib]

4. Couple reasons I think

1) unlike some societies we are not (for the most part) scared into acceptable behavior by a totalitarian government or extremely repressive mores and a tribe mentality that keeps aberrant behavior in check
2) previously mentioned aberrant behavior is often glorified in the media (John Wayne eg) as OK.
3) we got a hell of a lot of laws - some that don't make logical sense but no politician has the guts to change - drug laws.

[Retired AF Dem]

5. We place drug users in prison

China does mass firing squads in sports stadiums, stands to reason why we have more in prison than they do.

[applegrove]

6. You have to add that figure to executions. I would imagine China has

more executiions (kinda a jail) combined with prisoners. They do have 6 times more population than the USA. And all those Tibetan priests and nuns. At least one child under house arrest somewhere.

[mmonk]

7. Quite a list.

Hard hitting.