Cobbers

Mates on a mission

Some numbers from Iraq

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crosses.jpgPhotograph by Kevin Dooley

Within hours, or days, the inevitable will happen … a luckless US military member will be killed and become the 4,000th victim of the war in Iraq.

It is time to look at the real numbers behind this futile, stupid war, a war launched on lies and corruption.

The Cost to US Forces in Iraq

3,990: American troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the war. [icasualties.org, 3/17/08]

29,395: Number of U.S. service members that have been wounded in hostile action since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq. [AP, 3/11/08]

2,100: Number of troops who tried to commit suicide or injure themselves increased from 350 in 2002 to 2,100 last year. [US News and World Report, 2/25/08]

The Cost to Iraqis and Journalists

8,000: Number of Iraqi military and police killed since June 2003. [Brookings Institute, Iraq Index, March 13, 2008]

82,000-89,000: Estimate of Iraqi civilians casualties from violence since the beginning of the Iraq War. [Iraq Body Count]

127: Number of journalists killed in Iraq since March 2003. [Committee to Protect Journalists]

The Cost to US National Security

1,188: Number of global terrorist incidents from January – September 11th, 2001. [American Security Project, “Are We Winning?,” September 2007]

5,188: Number of global terrorist incidents in from January- September 11th, 2006. [American Security Project, “Are We Winning?,” September 200

The Cost of Funding the War in Iraq

$50-60 Billion: Bush Administration’s pre-war estimates of the cost of the war. [New York Times, 12/31/02]

$12 Billion: Direct cost per month of the Iraq War. [Washington Post, Bilmes and Stiglitz Op-Ed, 3/9/08]

$526 Billion: Amount of money already appropriated by Congress for the War in Iraq. [CRS, 2/22/08]

$3 Trillion: Total estimated cost of the Iraq War. [Washington Post, Bilmes and Stiglitz Op-Ed, 3/9/08]

Economic Costs of War in Iraq

$33.51: Cost of a barrel of oil in March 2003. [Energy Information Administration]

$105.68: Cost of a barrel of oil on March 17, 2008. [NYMEX]

There are many more revealing and scary numbers.

1 in 99 US adults behind bars

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prison_lodging.jpg

According to this story in the New York Times, the United States prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails.

The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars but that one in 100 black women are.

… wouldn’t be a great loss

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Found on An Eclectic Mind and had to share:

George Bush and Dick Cheney, while visiting a primary school class, found themselves in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.

The teacher asked both men if they would like to lead the discussion of the word ‘tragedy.’ So Mr. Cheney asks the class for an example of a ‘tragedy.’

One little boy stood up and offered: ‘If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks him dead, that would be a tragedy.’

‘No,’ said Mr. Cheney, ‘that would be an accident.’

[Read more…]