ATTENTION ALL WAR MONGERS

In addition to my comments in the “Democratic Response”, I thought that for fun, I’d point out what I find to be the most ironic of all ironies in this whole Iraq fiasco. The number of dead is essentially meaningless in any argument supporting action by this Country. I’ll splain it to ya.

First of all, suffer my brief disclaimer. 9/11 was a tragedy, it shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, and a measured retaliation was called for. I oppose terrorism and believe that war is necessary when what you believe in is actually and imminently at risk. I also believe that the way you win wars is not by trying not to kill people. That’s how wars are fought and won. Ask anyone who remembers WWII. If we had selectively targeted the German evildoers, we’d still be bogged down in Germany. Like it or not, innocent people have to die. If you don’t have the stomach for it or the mind to understand it, then don’t pretend you think war is a good idea ever. If huge amounts of people will criticize the deaths of innocents, then perhaps the reasons behind the war needs to be rethought. Few civilized persons protested the innocent deaths of Germans and Japanese in the effort to end WWII, because that god-forsaken war needed to be won.

Now back to my commentary – Most people believe that the loss of the lives of 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2006 was the single worst tragedy in American history since 1941, and that the sheer magnitude and suddenness of that loss justified all of the measures which followed, including the creation of a Homeland Security Dept and the initiation of two wars in two separate countries (and lets not forget the appropriation, budgeting and spending of approximately 78 BILLION dollars every 9 months or so – and may this entire Congress dems and repubs all suddenly die of a heart attack caused by pork-induced-clogged-arteries!)

But I digress . . . As a country – as a people, we react to large numbers, or so it seems. Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11 – and that was the impetus to mentally prepare for war (though our hunger for blood wouldn’t be satisfied for some time thereafter). Nearly 3,000 soldiers have died there, and now we want to change our policy because we’ve had enough. Really? Consider the following.

Every day in this country, approximately 115 people die on American roads as a consequence of traffic accidents – that’s right EVERY DAY. That’s 3,450 Americans dying every month and 41,400 Americans dying EVERY YEAR. This is a national statistic and you can look it up if you find it hard to believe. The NTSB tracks it annually. Since September 11, 2001, 248,400 Americans have died on US roads as a result of traffic accidents. This figure does not include injuries – this figure only accounts for deaths! There are over 6,000,000 accidents every year and over 3,000,000 injuries.

So when we look at the cosmic forces, which account for the greatest loss of innocent American lives, is it terrorism? Is it foreign countries making threats against the United States? No. It’s us – clearly we’re our own biggest threat to what we love and are willing to die for – our right to live. Ok, you might be saying, well can’t we assume that ½ the time the negligent or guilty driver dies in the accident so the number should only be half as much? Sure, if that makes you feel better. In that case, since September 11, 2001, 124,200 innocent Americans were murdered on US roads by negligent drivers. And when you start adding in deaths caused by handguns, (or murder 15,000 per year), negligent medical treatment (doctors negligently cause 100,000 iatrogenic deaths per year), smoking (450,000 people die annually due to causes directly related to cigarettes) etc., you start to wonder just what the hell the excitement is all about. Again, I’m not diminishing what happened on 9/11, but I question the size of the response in consideration of other bigger threats, which go unchecked every day (and often times are protected), right here on American soil.

Ah Yes! But the reason Bush and his buddies are in Iraq is for humanitarian purposes! After all, isn’t the Republican position that Saddam is a war criminal and killed hundreds of thousands of his people in furtherance of his dictatorship? Aren’t we really there to spread Democracy and make Iraq a better and safer place for mankind? Isn’t that our motivation? Save the lives of innocent people whose plight cries out for a Democratic system of government?

Well, if that were true, wouldn’t it make sense to start by stopping the most serious crimes against humanity and prioritize our use of resources? In case you haven’t noticed, millions of people (YES MILLIOINS) are being slaughtered (and have been slaughtered, maimed, butchered, raped and suffered other unthinkable crimes) in Africa and particularly in Rwanda. Our country has done nothing worth mentioning to stop it. Why? Because stopping the human slaughter of innocent people is not the type of business the US gets involved with – unless it can be used as an excuse for pursuing some other loftier (or personal) objective –. And unfortunately for the Rwandans, their sorry asses are sitting on top of useless, sun-baked dirt, below which does not flow billions and billions of barrels of precious oil.
So again, forget the numbers. There’s plenty of big numbers out there to justify any action you want to take. The problem is that it is hard to justify what’s going on in Iraq when you really look at the numbers – which you have to admit, are rather paltry by comparison to the real threat we Americans face every day.