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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: TimF who wrote (124323)	2/7/2004 1:49:28 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) of 281500

Hi twfowler; Re: "Hi Carl. Are those three days typical?" I really don't know. For political reasons, the US military has been ordered to not keep track of how many people they kill. One can only assume that the numbers would be shocking. Re: "Also how many of those killed are civilians and how many are hard-line baathists or fanatical terrorists?" It is a universal custom of the human species for occupying powers to declare anyone they kill to be fanatical terrorists. This is the case whether the government involved is publicly elected Democracy or a fanatical nuthatch dictatorship. The reason for the custom is the universal human desire to believe that ones cause is just. If one admitted that ones actions were motivated by the things which actually do motivate humans, one would be less likely to obtain allies and other handy things. The result is that, in every war the human species has ever prosecuted, throughout 3000 years of recorded history, God blessed both sides with equal fervor. Re: "That whole calculation doesn't make any sense. "Death rate" isn't the number killed per soldier but rather the number killed compared to the whole population. .... Your calculation of 5.8 million deaths per year is based on the average American killing as many other Americans as the average soldier in an area of combat is killing." You missed the point of the whole calculation. Most people do the calculation you have done (which is awful enough) that is, from the point of view of those who are killed. My calculation was instead *made from the point of view of our soldiers, those who must do the killing.* I'm going to guess that you've never killed anyone, and so do not understand the horror of the experience. Our culture treats killing as an amusement suitable for children to simulate in video games. The real world doesn't work like that at all. Most people don't have the guts to kill a chicken. A lot won't even kill a fish. Killing a man (or a child) is a far more stressful emotional experience than pretty much anything that civilian life can throw at you. At least with farm animals (or when hunting) you get the choice of how you kill. War isn't clean like gutting a fish. -- Carl

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