Remember when you were small, and somebody would slight you? It didn't matter if it was with something foolish, like holding a Nintendo remote too long. You flipped out. You screamed. You cried. You would flail your arms irrationally and in doing so often began a fight that would leave you bruised and hated.
If you don't remember this, if you remember your childhood as a period of success and wisdom, maybe you shouldn't read the statistics below.
Cillians killed in Trade Center attacks (includes people onboard planes, inside buildings, and rescue workers):
3018 (source: Associated Press)
Civilians killed in Afghanistan attacks (does not include members of terrorist organizations, Talibam military or "rebels"):
3068-3587 (source: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/)
Civilians killed in Iraq attacks:
1930-2377 (source: iraqbodycount.net)
Total civillian deaths in the middle east:
4998-5964
Feel free to disbelieve these numbers. That's exactly the sort of dumbass thing I expect people to do rather than admit that their loyalties are misplaced and their patriotism is marred by the steady deterioration of the things they're most proud of. Our damn monkey brains don't like to be wrong.
I do not support starting wars in other countries for any reason. I do not care that "the best defense is a good offense." This argument can too easily be used to commit atrocities in the name of paranoia -- after all, ANY country could be our enemy. We broke the missile treaty to protect ourselves. Protection should not leave our coastlines, it should not cross our borders, and if that means complete isolation, maybe we'll have to move the manufacture of essentials like tennis shoes, cars and toothbrushes back to american soil. Maybe we'll have to find an energy source that isn't controlled by fundamentalists. Maybe we'll have to sit idly by and let other countries make the same mistakes in the name of progress that we did, including civil wars and oppression. Maybe we should stop acting like the world's bigger brother, so they won't stop seeing us as Big Brother.
(Please see the iraqbodycount.org site for info on what the high and low numbers mean. They're an attempt to eliminate differences due to journalistic propaganda)
Posted by das at April 23, 2003 01:50 AM | TrackBack