[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/whos-responsible-for-losing-the-media-war-in-iraq.htm
? .05% of soldiers in Iraq were accused of any misconduct toward Iraqis in the past year.
? 15% of New York?s Police Department is accused of some misconduct during the year.
? .003% of military patrols have resulted in investigation.
? .16% of NYPD patrols result in investigation.
? Remove the incidents committed by one terribly led unit of prison guards (800th Military Police), and the military?s performance improves by more than 100%.
? In an environment at least 850 times as deadly as New York City, with a force of tens of thousands of teenagers who have no police training and who are working in communities where they do not even know the language, the U.S. military has done its policing job with 1/300th of the complaints that NYPD receives annually.
? On a per patrol basis, the military is 50 times less likely to receive a complaint than the NYPD.
? In the past year, New York City has lost one officer in the line of duty, or .002% of its force.
? Over the same period, the U.S. military in Iraq lost 842 or .7% of the in-country force (and 5,000 more wounded). [/quote]
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Lacey seems like a smart guy, and he’s obviously right in that our soldiers behave honorably and indeed admirably the vast majority of the time. But these numbers say very little.
Take, for example, the combat deaths. The U.S. military support and logistical system is massive (Camp Victory, Balad, dozens of other massive FOBs). There are tens of thousands of soldiers on these bases, which have everything from man-made lakes to Baskin Robbins, who leave the base maybe three or four times in a year’s tour. Look at the casualty numbers for actual combat troops, especially infantry, or combat support troops on frequent convoy duty, and the picture changes dramatically.
Likewise, as others have said, an Iraqi, especially a Sunni, is FAR less likely to mention misconduct, including physical abuse, than even the most beaten down guy in the Bronx.
None of this is meant to slander our soldiers, just to say be realistic and don’t toss out meaningless numbers. We’re in a dirty little war, and abuse and even murder of Iraqi civilians is not unheard of, even though we’re fighting one of the cleanest counter-insurgency campaigns in history, under a global media spotlight.