I got the "Military Losses" bullshit email today...

[Bigmack]

You know.. the one that starts...

"However you feel about the War on Terrorism, this report should open some eyes. If you are serious about learning the truth, or don't want to believe the facts shown, check the links provided.
__________________________________________________ ______
Military losses, 1980 through 2006"

The email says more military people died under Clinton than Bush and a whole lot of other shit. My friend sent it to me - asking if I knew anything about it - without the whole giant list of other people who got it, so I couldn't just Reply All.

Here's my answer to him:

Bob...

Where do you get this shit?

Once again, somebody quotes a study, and then screws with the conclusions and numbers from the study. Below is the actual chart from the study... Please take the time to look this over and please send it to the gullible people who forwarded it to other people.

My calculator says 7500 deaths during the 8 years of Clinton, not 14,000. Look at the differences between the email stats vs the actual chart for the years '95, '96 & '98 Those are not just number transpositions.... they are lies.
8792 deaths during the first 6 years of Bush W. including 2007
827 deaths in Clinton's 1998, NOT the 2252 in the email.

So, once again, we have LIES.

Probably the worst kind of lie is shown by the second chart below... from the study quoted in the email. You will note that exactly 1 (ONE) US service person died from hostile action during the period 1992-2000. Another 75 died from terrorist action. Being in the military at all is dangerous... and stressful. Even the deaths by accident were lower under Clinton than under presidents before and after him. (Why do I end up defending Clinton, who is no friend of mine? Because that's what the numbers ARE... not the numbers people WANT.) Shit, Bob... you can use a calculator!

And Carter? Once again, the chart shows 1 (ONE) US serviceperson killed by hostile/terrorist action in 1980. The figure of 2392 is from accident, homocide, and suicide.

Do the people who send you this shit just make it up? Or are they just too lazy to do the 3 minutes of research it took me to debunk this crap?

Somebody found these charts, and then altered the numbers to further their own political views, then they passed it on to gullible people who won't check.

The URL is
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

[grannylib]

1. *sigh* Lies, fearmongering, and smear tactics - it's all they have

Hope your friend takes off the blinders...

[ixion]

2. one million dead Iraqis under Bush

'nuff said.

[Breeze54]

3. I never got that one but they

sound like the 23% still supporting B* or is it 13% now? :P

Glad you set your 'friend' straight. Gheesh.

I get the 'Gawd, Troop Support and blah, blah, blah' one's
but I haven't checked that e-mail acct. in quite awhile now.

I wonder why... :sarcasm: ;)

[hatrack]

4. I have a simpler response to emails like these - "Don't send me any more of this shit ever again."

It's usually quite effective.

[margotb822]

5. Even if I didn't have a chart, history tells us

that it is impossible for servicemembers to have died under Clinton than W. * took us into war, Clinton did not often put "boots on the ground." Only a moran could believe that email, charts or not. And, I'm talking about hostile deaths, not due to accidents or stupidity.