Letters to the Editor
-
Wit
To be fair, I’ve never seen an organization use so many parentheticals to say “we’re required by U.S. Code to report some kind of figures, but these are likely wrong and meaningless.”
-While NCTC keeps statistics on the annual number of incidents of "terrorism," its ability to track the specific groups responsible for each incident involving killings, kidnappings, and injuries is significantly limited by the availability of reliable open source information, particularly for events involving small numbers of casualties.
-NCTC cautions against placing too much emphasis on any single set of incident data to gauge success or failure against the forces of terrorism. Furthermore, NCTC does not believe that a simple comparison of the total number of incidents from year to year provides a meaningful measure.
Meanwhile, what’s highly ironic is that this database is called the “Worldwide Incidents Tracking System” or WITS. “Wit” means “reasoning power or intelligence.”
And, bonus irony, “wit” can also mean “irony.”
It’d be fun if it weren’t so awful.
-
Fuzzy Math
So if a total of 30 apples, oranges, or pears were eaten by me in 2005, and a total of 45 apples, oranges or pears were eaten in 2006, that means that I ate 75 apples in the past two years?
Injured doesn't mean killed. Kidnapped doesn't mean killed. The figures are bad enough; you don't have to misrepresent them.
-
numbers don't add up
Anyway you slice it, that's a lot of bad news, but if there were 38,813 individuals killed, injured, or kidnapped plus another 20,685 killed, injured, or kidnapped, doesn't that add up to 59,498 killed, injured, or kidnapped? Rather than 59,498 dead? Or am I missing something?
-
How much larger would the number be . . .
if it included "individuals in Iraq killed, injured or kidnapped are a result of" American military operations?
-
Who...
killed, injured or kidnapped the bulk of those people?
-
That blood
is on our hands
-
Keep in mind
I don't think anyone could really argue that the vast bulk of the kidnappings, killings, et cetera going on in Iraq could be attributed directly to the American military. We and our brave soldiers make mistakes, sure, but widespread civilian carnage is not American military policy. However, we do need to face the fact that the most of the casualties are victims of terrorists and insurgents and ethnic clensing campaigns that can operate in the country because of conditions that we have created and maintained. Though not directly responsible for those deaths, we are responsible. It is largely because of this that we are so hated in Iraq, and why our presence has generated, and will continue to generate more people willing to go out and kill. It really is not hard to understand. At least not on an intellectual level. On a human and emotional level, though...not so much.
-
Tiberius
I think you need to jump on a plane and fly over there and figure it out, then report back to us.
-
WITS Stats
http://wits.nctc.gov/Main.do
According to the WITS database, for incidents between Jan. 1st 2005 and Dec. 31st 2006 in Iraq:
-2% of the victims were the result of Shia Extremists
-24% of the victims were the result of Sunni Extremists
-74% of the victims were the result of Unknown Perpetrators
Victims Types:
-4% of the victims were taken hostage
-36% of the victims died
-60% of the victims were wounded
Think about it: 74% % of the victims were the result of Unknown Perpetrators. These stats ultimately reveal very little.
-----------
FYI-Detailed Stats (apologies for length):
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Shia)
Dead: 381
Wounded: 377
Hostages: 276
Total Victims: 1034
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Sunni)
Dead: 4935
Wounded: 8860
Hostages: 358
Total Victims: 14153
Perpetrator(s):Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Shia)
Dead: 19
Wounded: 0
Hostages: 13
Total Victims: 32
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Shia)
Dead: 66
Wounded: 68
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 134
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Sunni)
Dead: 0
Wounded: 0
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 0
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Unknown
Dead: 2
Wounded: 14
Hostages: 7
Total Victims: 23
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Tribal/Clan/Ethnic
Dead: 0
Wounded: 0
Hostages: 2
Total Victims: 2
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Unknown)
Dead: 157
Wounded: 317
Hostages: 40
Total Victims: 514
Perpetrator(s): Islamic Extremist (Unknown),Secular Political/Anarchist
Dead: 1
Wounded: 0
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 1
Perpetrator(s): Secular Political/Anarchist
Dead: 22
Wounded: 71
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 93
Perpetrator(s): Unknown
Dead: 15987
Wounded: 25993
Hostages: 1542
Total Victims: 43522
Perpetrator(s): Unknown,Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Sunni)
Dead: 10
Wounded: 10
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 20
Perpetrator(s): Unknown,Islamic Extremist (Sunni),Islamic Extremist (Unknown)
Dead: 9
Wounded: 16
Hostages: 0
Total Victims: 25
Perpetrator(s): Unknown,Unknown
Dead: 0
Wounded: 0
Hostages: 1
Total Victims: 1
-
I Thought The Figure Referred To Nam
I clicked on the number link b/c I thought it would lead to an essay about the tens of thousands of American soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. The figure is about right. Even though I'm female, I served in the Army during that era, although not in the war zone. I remember it well, and sadly. All this horror over 700 military deaths a year in Iraq; try stomaching 700 per week during the terrible years of 1966-68. And the civilian deaths? In the millions.
Perhaps because of what happened to our youth in Vietnam, we can tolerate only so much bloodletting today.
Bring them home, now!
-
You missed the elephant in the room
I despair that it is the rule rather than the exception that the media and public focus so tightly on the less significant stats.
I refer everyone to this article in Salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/10/11/deaths/index.html
and a corresponding one in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html?nav=rss_email/components
...in which it is noted that the number of (Iraqi) "excess deaths" resulting from the U.S. invasion of Iraq is in the neighborhood of 655,000. 655,000 as of late last year. And climbing rapidly.
This is the number of people that have died as a result of the conflict in excess of those that would have normally died in the same period of time. So, despite the fact that it includes both directly and indirectly caused deaths, this is how many people have died because of this conflict. This is how many people--mostly innocent civilians--we have killed by allowing Bush to come to power.
And for what??? We have created a breeding ground for terrorists, we have thrown out our civil rights. We have destroyed our international reputation and stature and leadership, and deservedly so. We have accelerated nuclear proliferation around the world as other countries conclude the U.S.A. is a loose cannon. We have amplified the danger rather than decreasing it. We have *become* the terrorists, at least in the parts of the world where we so desperately need to win hearts and minds.
Read the articles; the numbers and methodology are valid. The number is not precise, but the confidence that it is more in the ballpark are high. Every American should know this. These people died because we were too lazy to get the truth, too lax to demand that our news media not be driven strictly by profit motive, and too lame to not understand the unsubtle deceptions and illegal activities of the Bush administration.