2006-04-13

On Tom's Defeatist "Getting Our Asses Kicked" Claim

This article shows that mortality rate of US troops in Iraq is lower than overal US mortality rate. -- Paul

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Gee Tom, if you would call losing 5187 soldiers in Afghanistan & Iraq from 2001 through 2004 "getting our ass kicked", I'd sure like to know what you would call the over 72,000 American casualties at the Battle of Okinawa which lasted from March through June of 1945?

Paul Hue said...

Six: I hope you forgive me for modifying your post. I eliminated the text, since it was merely copied from the posts, and broke it into two entries, one for each post.

Paul Hue said...

These are fascinating statistics, and remind me of the crucial question that Thomas Sowell always asks: "As compared to *WHAT*?" Tom and Nadir seem to unwittingly subscribe to the "might is right" philosophy, since they so eagerly trumpet negative battlefield statistics in bolstering their long-ago established opposition to these wars. The rebellions of Nat Turner and John Brown were big defeats, but I'm sure that Tom and Nadir cheer them in the history pages. Turner's rebellion led to drastic clamping down on black liberties throughout the south, which in turn inspired more opposition to slavery, which led to John Brown's raid, a defeat that led to perhaps a million blacks and whites dying directly or indirectly from a civil war.

Speaking of that noble cause -- with all its war crimes violations by the good guys and years of massive defeats -- a recent documentary explained how the confederate war aim focused on winning press accounts in the northern press to convince the people there that the price was too high, so that they would give up and let the confederates "go", which of course meant enslave blacks in their current terrirtory, then go take over Mexico, Central and South America, and create what they caled, "An Empire of Slavery."

Unknown said...

No problem Paul.

Tom Philpott said...

Cool, guys. Let's pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and barge into Iran. YES! Go team! Let's go kick some real a-rab ass! [Long, thundrous howl, punctuated by fist waving].

Unknown said...

Nah, Tom. Let's wait until Tel-Aviv, or all of Israel for that matter has been turned into a glass-paved parking lot. But then again, you seem pretty anti-semitic and anti-zionist, so maybe that's what you're hoping for.

Tom Philpott said...

It's anti-semitic to question the wisdom of bombing Iran? I suppose it's also anti-American and downright treasonous. By the time you're done, the only reliable Americans will be Birchers and Fox News talk-show hosts.

Tom Philpott said...

By the way -- not that it matters; critics of Iran-bombing counting automatically as anti-Semites -- I'm having a Passover seder at my house tonight.

Unknown said...

"I'm not a racist! Some of my best friends are (insert ethnic/religous group here)"