First off, no one better exemplifies that idea than you do. You are the one that posted the comparison between murders in California and war deaths in Iraq. That was stupid. Clearly, you believed there was some cause for comparison. And your implication that it's less dangerous to be a trooper in Iraq than it is to live in California has been debunked. So instead of acknowledging your error instead you engage in a silly exercise in statistics to try to make the point that the number of Americans killed in Iraq is really nothing to be concerned about, being so small and all. Your shit is very weak!
Since you are a vaunted historian you should know that in previous conflicts the reports of losses has always been reported as casualties, not simply the dead. For example, in the battle of Iwo Jima the casualties were nearly
30,000 on our side. Deaths were only around 6,900, but that is not how it was reported. The reports are of casualties; meaning dead, wounded, and missing. Now, the Bush administration only reports the dead in their propaganda effort to minimize the actual losses. When you use the standard measure of casualties in the Iraq war for the US it is between 20 and 40 thousand. In reality, the number of casualties the US has suffered in the war is substantial. Especially when you consider that due to improved medical care all kinds of people that would have died in other wars have survived. However, while they are not dead they are horribly maimed. The number of men who have lost limbs and have received grievous head injuries in this war is far greater than ever before. So, as much as Gunner would like to make the price we are paying in Iraq with the lives and bodies of our troops seem small, the truth is a lot different that what he pretends it is.In his attempt to make Bush look good Gunner can trivialize the death of our troops all he wants. He can make excuses all day long why it is okay. He can compare statistics and show how insignificant their deaths really are. That is all well and good. But the fact remains, some Americans are paying a high price for Bush's miscalculations. They are paying with their children's lives and to them the loss isn't trivial. Right wingers like Gunner like to think of themselves as patriots, but as they minimize the losses others have suffered while continuing to support the interventions in the affairs of other sovereign nations, it's plain to see they are anything but patriotic. They're willing to keep the war going year after year as long as it's other people who are paying for it. And all so the Gunners of the world can say "we're winning".
Hawke