A "massacre" in Iraq every hour

[Pontiuth Pilate]

The population of Iraq (as of 2006) is estimated at 26.8 million.

The population of the United States is 301 million. Or eleven times larger.

How bad is the violence in Iraq? Well, the most reliable estimate of reported civilian casualties (not ALL civilian casualties) is 65,000 over the past 4 years.

What would America be like if 715,000 Americans (nearly one MILLION) had died over the past 4 years in suicide bomb attacks, military-guerilla crossfire, gang warfare and lawlessness?

Today, 33 Americans died in the Virginia Tech massacre as the result of a single gun-wielding psycho.

For comparison? Yesterday, Reuters and AP combined reported 70 Iraqi deaths in different attacks and bombings.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6559190,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-14-iraq-bomb_N.htm?csp=34
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA430762.htm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA430762.htm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15575809.htm

What would America be like if 770 Americans died each day due to such massacres?

If Virginia Tech is the "worst shooting incident in American history," what would America be like if a suicide bombing, mass execution or deathsquad committed one such massacre every hour? That's how fast the morgues would have to fill up to keep us even with Iraq.

What if these "shooting incidents" were not isolated horrors, but a continuing toll - over 5 thousand a week - that added up to HUNDREDS of thousands of innocents killed each year?

What if, as a result, 22 million Americans who had the means had fled the country over the past 4 years, seeking refuge in Canada and Mexico?

What if the White House were occasionally under mortar fire?

What if officials in the Pentagon, the State Department and the Congress were afraid to leave DC?

What if Seattle, San Francisco, Omaha, Atlanta and Boston were completely controlled by militia groups numbering hundreds of thousands of armed men, more or less outside the control of the government?

What if the president of France staged a photo-op where he strolled down Philadelphia Avenue, D.C. (wearing body armor, escorted by hundreds of soldiers and with fighter jets flying overhead) and said that the city is "pretty safe"?

 

[Godwynn]

Good work Pontiuth!

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Seriously. If 8% of my country - 22 million citizens including myself - had fled the country over the past 4 years just to escape the violence, and some self-satisfied schmuck from another country posted internet forum threads with titles like "Is It Really That Bad?"... well, I would want to smack that beotch up.

 

[Winner]

Who cares about Iraq? I don't. They want a civil war, I say let them.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

God, I hate the cognitive dissonance types.

"It's all the Arabs' fault! We offered them glorious democracy and they would rather slaughter each other!"

Ugh. It's your goddamn fault whether you admit it or not. Your goddamn war. Your goddamn bombs. Your goddamn leadership that utterly failed their people and provided neither security nor peace.

 

[emzie]

I thought the same thing earlier today. People don't care what happens 'over there' whereever 'over there' is (regardless of nationality or race, for the most part)

What if the president of France staged a photo-op where he strolled down Philadelphia Avenue, D.C. (wearing body armor, escorted by hundreds of soldiers and with fighter jets flying overhead) and said that the city is "pretty safe"?

Change that to Alabama Ave and it sounds accurate

 

[PrincepsAmerica]

Pretty good thread Pontiuth, I made the same connection mentally when I was watching the news.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Ugh. It's your goddamn fault whether you admit it or not. Your goddamn war. Your goddamn bombs. Your goddamn leadership that utterly failed their people and provided neither security nor peace.

I agree completely, but what do you propose as a solution? Stay in Iraq longer? Send more troops? Pull out, apologize and leave them $20 billion on the nightstand? This 'you broke it, so you own it' thing doesnt quite apply to other countries. We dont own Iraq. Or what used to be Iraq.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Who cares about Iraq? I don't. They want a civil war, I say let them.

I think this perception is pretty prevalent currently including high levels of government echoing this sentiment. That Iraq civil war is ineviatble and that no peace can come by simply supressing the violence. Allow Iraqis to slaughter each other then when the killing subsides eventually that when peace will come.

/meh
its not like we WARNED you this would happen.

” ‘You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people,’ he told the president. ‘You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You’ll own it all.’ Privately, Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called this the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it.”

 

[general_kill]

No one cares about Darfur...
No solutions are offered...
No progress can be made...

 

[FriendlyFire]

No one cares about Darfur...
No solutions are offered...
No progress can be made...

IIRC Sudan has now accepted ARMED UN forces within its territory. Including US attack helicopters and airpower over its airspace. Though the sceptic in me believes this to be the african darfu populations becoming armed and fighting back and Sudan see this as a way to maipulate the UN into negosiating another cease fire.

At the very least us airpower will halt the sudanese airforce bombing and killing civilians.

 

[MjM]

Well, we should be in a state of Civil War than to compensate! YEEHAW

 

[Bast]

God, I hate the cognitive dissonance types.

"It's all the Arabs' fault! We offered them glorious democracy and they would rather slaughter each other!"

Ugh. It's your goddamn fault whether you admit it or not. Your goddamn war. Your goddamn bombs. Your goddamn leadership that utterly failed their people and provided neither security nor peace.

Why do you care? Are you Iraqi?

QUESTION: Do you care about Darfur as well or is Iraq the only one on your agenda?

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Why do you care?

Good question.

I care when any innocent person dies needlessly and I hear about it.

I hope most people here do too.

 

[bobgote]

so the solution to all our problems is to keep PP away from the media?

 

[Winner]

God, I hate the cognitive dissonance types.

"It's all the Arabs' fault! We offered them glorious democracy and they would rather slaughter each other!"

They've been killing themselves before, they're doing it now and they're gonna do it in the future. Why should I care, again?

Ugh. It's your goddamn fault whether you admit it or not. Your goddamn war. Your goddamn bombs. Your goddamn leadership that utterly failed their people and provided neither security nor peace.

It is sometimes usefull to look at the "location" under the avatar of the poster you want to insult. You can learn interesting things like the country he comes from.

I am a Czech, so it is not my fault, it is not my war, not my bomb, not my anything, so chill out.

As for the Americans - they did a whole pile of mistakes, no doubt about that. But it is not their fault Shia and Sunnis hate each other. It is not their fault they are killing themselves like wild animals. I know how it sounds, but they did give them a chance to make things better. But they didn't took it, because they like to kill each other for some absurd religious differences.

So once more: WHY SHLOULD I CARE?

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

I thought the Czechs sent a chemical warfare team in during the invasion. 200 soldiers wasn't it? I don't know, it has been so long since 2003.

 

[Kyriakos]

Good work Pontiuth. No nation could stand such a state of prolonged anarchy.
It still surprises me that the Us could go alone (Uk does not count; unfortunately it was allowed to act as a puppet) at such a war. I wonder what will happen the next time a few thousant americans will die in similar fashion (perhaps in many decades).
And i still find it very miserable that a civilised country can become so estranged with the rest of the world that it can cause such destruction.
Hopefully (it it ever happens) when Britain are more a part of the EU, there will be no more pretext for such wars, and at least then resistence towards them from the inside may become a lot more ponounced.

 

[BEHIND_THE_MASK]

Good question.

I care when any innocent person dies needlessly and I hear about it.

I hope most people here do too.

How do you know the civilian was innocent? Civilian has just become a label with "Dont Kill" on it...

Then it turns out that the Civilian whom you tried so hard to protect pulls out a gun and puts a shell into your skull.

I agree with Winner. Let them have a Civil War, its not like its gonna be avoided anyways... we're not talking about calm, educated Westerns like the Europeans or Americans, even then they still had a number of Civil Wars... we're talking about dirt poor, extremist groups who want each others blood. I dont see them being stopped.

 

[Bast]

Good question.

I care when any innocent person dies needlessly and I hear about it.

I hope most people here do too.

Yes well, you can care and whine about Darfur, North Korea, China, India and hello United States too. Why do you keep talking about this single problem?