Quote:
"little do we know that every death turns 10 people into sworn enemies."
what am I missing here? If as the article suggests, the deaths are a result of insurgent suicide bombings then:
1. How is it the coalitions fault? they actually themselves killed 38 people who were likely to repeat this, and arrest 510 of them thereby reducing the number of deaths from insurgents. That's something to celebrate right? Not like party hats and blowing those little noise makers that unravel celebrating, but celebrate as the article does, by acknowledging the obvious progress. Seems like a good thing to me.
2. The more obvious question: If an insurgent suicide bomber kills my family, why are me and 10 of my friends gong to join the insurgents, and kill more innocent people. There's some logic misisng in there somewhere.
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mathew,
i dont see any cause for celebration really. not until the toll is zero. send me a PM on that day and we'll celebrate together..hm.....'kay?
as for your question as to why family and friends would join to fight against the coalition.. maybe for the same reason thousands of people joined the US armed forces after 911, maybe its because they have nothing better to live for because not only are their houses bombed, but their family, kids, paerents, brotehrs etc al have been vapourised. poverty and tragidy are two of the catalysts for breeding fundamentalism. when will the coalition learn this? but keep sipping on your mint flavoured herbal tea in your armchair..they are after all just a bunch of 'brownies' eh?.... 122, 150 257, 566, 398,.. just a bunch of numbers right?
im with BG here, you cannot justify current civilian deaths with how many saddam would have potentially killed. That's not really the issue here.
but on the subject of saddam, he was a stabilizing force for his country, he was the supreme ruler who was recognised by all world leaders alike, and he did a damn good job of keeping the different factions together under difficult circumstances. the people of iraq are tough rebellious people. throughout the arab world, this is common knowledge. i remember my father sitting me down when i was a kid explaining the history of iraq and why the iraqis would never be subjugated by an external force. saddam understood this very well and his rule took this perspective.
Quote:
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If you're merely pointing out that an improvement in the overall level of violence should not wipe out our consideration of those still being killed, I am with you. Or if you are lamenting the very human psychological tendency to normalize our expectations to a recent baseline and then focus on deviations from that baseline, then I agree, that tendency can often cloud our ability to prioritize among events.
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hiredgun - thank you, your words are spot on. its not the story itself that i have an issue with. your first paragraph hit it on the head.