Freedom's Fidelity

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Just Wondering

Over the weekend, it occurred to me that two seemingly unrelated questions I was casually wondering about actually share an indentical answer. The first came after reading an excellent essay (via TallDave) from Power Line's John Hinderaker, who offers up some thoughts on casualties during peace and wartime and how the media portrays it all. The whole thing is well worth the read, but this little fact was truly astounding:

The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq--now, over 1,800 deaths--is generally devoid of context Here's some context: between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286 per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly two to one.

That's right: all through the years when hardly anyone was paying attention, soldiers, sailors and Marines were dying in accidents, training and otherwise, at nearly twice the rate of combat deaths in Iraq from the start of the war in 2003 to the present.

So where was the left's outcry over troop death's during those times? Where was the Disband The Military! movement then? Why no outcry?

Question 2 - Yesterday I saw this item:

DUBAI (Reuters) - The al Qaeda group in Iraq on Sunday hailed the hurricane deaths in America as the "wrath of God," according to an Internet statement. "God attacked America and the prayers of the oppressed were answered..... The wrath of the All-powerful fell upon the nation of oppressors. Their dead are in the thousands and their losses are in the billions.... Only recently America killed and starved whoever it wanted, but today it is appealing for oil and food..."

When wack jobs like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell make similarly ludicrous statements the left (not incorrectly) denounces them. Is AQ in Iraq's assertion that Hurricane Katrina is God's wrath visited upon a decadent and morally bankrupt United States somehow more credible than Falwell's or Robertson's? Where is the outcry?

The answer to both questions as far as I can tell is: There is no anti-American or anti-Bush significance to either complaint, why bother?

posted by Paul  permalink | |