Article

2004-05-30 Iraq-Jordan

Guard Casualty Rate above Regular Army in Iraq

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Posted by Mr. Davis 2004-05-30 3:06:33 PM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 OH DEAR MOTHER OF GOD!!!!!!! LET'S ALL PANIC!!! THE CASUALTY RATE FOR RESERVISTS IS MOUNTING AND NOW IT'S...

...no different than the rest of our troops.

Sorry, but this horseshit article is nothing more than the result of that idiot Robert Burns sitting down with a fifth of Scotch and some statistics tables and weaving a slyly worded, but otherwise vacuous, tale of woe for no other purpose than to cause people to lose heart (and vote for John Kerry, of course, because we're in a really terrible fix and it's all Bush's fault).

"One has to question the wisdom of sending Reservists into combat..."

No, one does not. What one has to do is refrain from getting hoodwinked by dishonest journalists operating on hidden agendas. Our reservists are doing the job they were sent over there for and they're doing it quite well, thank you.

Instead of getting taken in by Robert Burns' contrived, manipulative hand-wringing, consider these for perspective:

Q: How many months worth of U.S. highway fatalities are represented by the casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom to date?
A: 6.7 days worth.

Q: At the present casualty rate, how much longer will it be before the number of Americans killed in OIF equals the number killed in Vietnam?
A: Another 73 years; unless you're very young, it sure as hell isn't going to happen in your lifetime.

Q: How much longer before our casualties equal those of World War 2?
A: Adjusting for the difference in U.S. population between then and now (132 million v. 290 million), it'll take another one thousand, one hundred years.

"Especially troubling, OâHanlon says, is the continued reluctance of ordinary Iraqis to throw their support behind the American effort."

And the single most important reason for that, is that they're worried we might lose our nerve and abandon them.

The best thing we can do right now to avoid failure, is to quit worrying about failure. Time to buck up.

Posted by Dave D. 2004-05-30 4:12:54 PM|| 2004-05-30 4:12:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Rantburg University.

Thanks Dave D.!

Posted by ex-lib 2004-05-30 6:13:56 PM|| 2004-05-30 6:13:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Dave, good post but this is how the Times would spin it:

"War in Iraq Distracts Bush from Controlling Highway Traffic Deaths"

"Casualties in Iraq Approach Those in Vietnam, WWII"

The flippin' Book Review section today had a full-page article on global warming books including a reference to the Kyoto treaty , "which President Bush has rejected anyway." (As I recall it was a 95-0 vote of the US Senate during King William's reign that rejected it.)

Posted by Matt 2004-05-30 8:26:46 PM|| 2004-05-30 8:26:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 "War in Iraq Distracts Bush from Controlling Highway Traffic Deaths"

Too bad there wasn't a Food/Drink Alert on that one- damn near choked on a Fig Newton when I grokked it.

Posted by Dave D. 2004-05-30 8:37:52 PM|| 2004-05-30 8:37:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Dave, may I ask how your son is doing?

Posted by Matt 2004-05-30 8:53:11 PM|| 2004-05-30 8:53:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Thanks for asking. He's doing OK; it's pretty quiet down where he is, and they stick pretty close to the base.

A few weeks back he went with a bunch of the guys on a joyride to the port at Umm Qasr. This is him, in the middle:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dilatush/ummqasr4.jpg

Not a clue who the two Iraqi dudes are, he says they just wanted their pictures taken with every GI they could find and chattered like magpies. The people were friendly, and a great time was had by all.

Big thing right now is the heat: he wrote to me on Wednesday, saying that at 9:00 a.m. it had reached 100 degrees; at noon it was 125; and the forecast high for the day was 140. He says that when there's a wind, it feels just like standing behind an idling jet engine.

Posted by Dave D. 2004-05-30 9:06:44 PM|| 2004-05-30 9:06:44 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Ditto on the Food/Drink Alert. LOL

the utility of the Reserves as a whole ought to be debated. How much could the existing forces be expanded if the Reserves were all deactivated?

Two quick responses to that. First, please folks - ditch the assumption that we could easily and quickly expand the active duty forces. Or rather, that we could do so with good results.

This isn't WWII. Today's soldiers require, and get, extensive training to make good use of the technology and doctrine we give them. That takes time, money and experienced trainers - not something one develops overnight. Do we pull top NCOs out of duty in Iraq to train new recruits, leaving their units without their leadership and experience? NCOs are the backbone of our services - this, to a far greater degree than in many other countries, and to our great benefit. You can't clone them quickly ...

Moreover, there are sound reasons for having a Reserve. One is that when you need them unexpectedly - say, if terrorists declare war on you - they're there and can be called up for service quickly. The other is, at least in my mind, the value in a democracy of having many citizens not only trained for military service, but connected to the defense of our country and our society.

Posted by rkb 2004-05-30 9:11:11 PM|| 2004-05-30 9:11:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 ditto too RKB - also think there's a value when the military's made up not just of professional soldiers (hey, not arguing against the volunteer force - put down the pitchforks and torches!), but also of our civilian friends, coworkers and neighbors who voluntarily joined the Reserve. It keeps a trained resource that we wouldn't want to have every year...

Posted by Frank G 2004-05-30 9:22:17 PM|| 2004-05-30 9:22:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 What a total crock of s++t this article is. So it turns out that our troops' death toll in May was 1/2 that in April. So in order to put a bad spin on the story, the hack journalist (Burns) adds the two months together so he can avoiding stating that our losses actually fell. This type of dreck is worthy of the NYTimes. Also, it's about time that the Army/Marines stop giving details on how the Muslims are killing our troops. It just confirms for them what works and what doesn't.

Posted by MrGrumpyDrawers 2004-05-31 2:16:07 AM|| 2004-05-31 2:16:07 AM|| Front Page Top

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