Media Matters for America pointed out Rush’s lack of mathematical comprehension in his 31 January broadcast where he made the erroneous claim that it is safer to be a soldier in Iraq than a citizen of the city of Philadelphia. Rush doesn’t archive transcriptions of his broadcasts for all to hear, but Media Matters does:
We're concerned with death here. We're concerned with body counts. We're concerned with the breakdown of law and order. [inaudible] Insurgencies, gangs, whatever you want to call them. They're out of control in major American cities, and Philadelphia is just one example, and where are the hearings on this? Oh, I know. Senator Biden and Speaker Pelosi are too busy trying to weaken the commander-in-chief so we can't win the war in Iraq. They are not only invested in defeat, they can't allow victory. They simp -- politically, they cannot allow it. Four-hundred-and-six Philadelphians murdered last year; unbelievable. We have lost just over 3,000 soldiers in Iraq in nearly four years, about 600 of those were due to non-combat accidents. There were 821 deaths in Iraq, troop-related deaths last year; 406 in one American city! And consider the media attention. We hear about how out of control Baghdad is. We hear about how nobody can control it, and Bush can't control it and the U.S. military can't control it.Following the sources quoted in the Media Matters article, we can see that Philadelphia had 406 murders during the 2006 year. Philadelphia’s population is between 1.46 and 1.5 million people, and last year’s death rate of 27 people per hundred thousand puts it at the top in US cities. From Reuters news:
Let's get a little proportion and let's talk about the fact that it is not safe to walk in parts of our own American cities. Democrat-run cities, liberal politicians. The contrast in big media coverage, especially the TV networks, is sickening. If we were to follow the way Democrats want to deal with Iraq and apply it to how we should deal with Philadelphia and other crime-ridden big cities, we should do the following: Cut off all federal funding for Philadelphia. Withdraw all federal agencies and FBI offices, any federal law enforcement, get them the hell out of there by 2008 so Hillary Clinton doesn't have to deal with it when she's inaugurated in January of 2009. It sounds to me like there's a civil war going on in Philadelphia and in other major American cities, and we ought not be in the middle of it.
In Philadelphia, homicides rose 7 percent to a nine-year high of 406 last year, giving it the highest murder rate per 100,000 people among America's 10 biggest cities, according to a survey of police departments by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, which keeps runs a tally.So I took a look at icasualties.org, and counted only US soldier deaths due to hostile action, and came up with 703 deaths of American military members during the 2006 year. As of late 2006 there were 152,000 US military members in Iraq. This adds up to a death rate of 463 people per hundred thousand troops. If we were to apply that math to Philadelphia’s population then that poor city would require 6,945 deaths to equal last year’s US military death rate.
But those are just deaths due to hostile action. The vast majority of Iraq casualties are living wounded – they live with missing limbs, missing organs, and all too often with missing mental faculties. During the 2006 year 6,372 US military members were wounded due to action in Iraq, 4,192 wounded per 100,000. When I apply this rate to Philadelphia’s population I see that Philadelphia would require 62,882 wounded to equal Iraq’s rate of wounded casualties.
That’s 62,882 people wounded by explosives, firearms, physical attacks – leading to dramatically changed lives with missing limbs and organs.
Rush couldn’t be more dishonest if he called the Iraq war a cakewalk for American soldiers; by playing down the dangers of Iraq he is mocking the efforts and sacrifice of military members. In telling progressives that we are overplaying the dangers over there, he is instead coming across as a pompous ass to our military. What next? Will he tell the military to quit whining, will he start telling them they should be grateful because of how ‘good’ they have it over there? Bah!
I’ve complained about Rush before. Now I hope everyone can see that he’s just another Chickenhawk. Yes, I understand that he “4-F’d” the draft with a legitimate reason, but he had a choice – his medical deferment could have been easily fixed.When I completed Air Force Basic Training in January of 1985, I was required to wait a few days before my bus ride to my technical training squadron at Keesler AFB in Biloxi Mississippi. I spent those 3 days doing garbage patrol for the Air Force and living in the Medical Hold barracks. My roommate in those barracks was my guide around the base; he had been living on Medical Hold for 6 months when I met him. He was on hold for Hyperelastic Skin, a condition that allowed him to stretch his skin to unbelievable lengths. He was a very active person, and never saw his condition as a problem. He saw it as a benefit because it had allowed doctors to sew up a gash on his arm that he had suffered during a nasty accident; he had a barely noticeable scar from that, where I would have had a long tear.
The Air Force didn’t know what to think about my roommate’s condition, and had cautiously accepted him into basic training – I think they expected him to flunk out, but he fooled them by doing well and graduating boot camp. So they placed him on medical hold while they tried to figure it out. After 4 months he got tired of being in limbo and hired an attorney to force the issue – he was fighting to gain entry!
I don’t know what became of him; I left him behind and tried to put him out of my mind while I spent the next 7 months concentrating on electronics school. Although I’ve forgotten his name, I never forgot him – and I’ve become more impressed with his determination over the years. He was determined to join, and determined to prove to the military that his physical condition was not a hindrance to his being a good Airman.
Compare this to Rush, who has an easily treatable problem and who grabbed his chance to be sure he wouldn’t be drafted. This is the kind of person who is pooh-poohing the dangers of Iraq – a person who was assured that he would never subject his pasty-white lard butt (sorry for that image) to military conditions. Rush has never had to wonder if his next deployment would put him in harm’s way – and he’s never had a problem bellowing at those of us who would like to make sure we don’t send our troops into unnecessary danger.
Personally, I think Rush is two-faced – it’s just that one of those faces has a cyst on it.
1 comment:
So, basically, rush is just a cyst in the ass.
Post a Comment