Firearms Refresher Course/Katrina
"Subject: Firearms Refresher Course:
If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq Theater of operations during the last 22 months; that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.
Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington, D.C."
Here is my response:
Dear Cuz,
The lack of logic in the piece above, which you sent to me, is typical of the shoddy, but arrogant, thinking that got us into the Iraq quagmire in the first place; an extension of the comment of the senior Bush Adm. official last year that"we're an empire now, and we create our own reality," or, the Rev. Pat Robertson's, that George W. is"our Emperor."
The modern American Army has a very low % of troops actually wielding weapons compared to those involved in food and other supplies (a further armored Abrams tank gets 1 mpg, a bit less than my Civic Hybrid which I bought at Joe Marina Honda!), maintenance, bringing all the a/c and TVs needed, etc., extending back into Europe and the US for all this support. Further, much of our bombing has been done from places other than Iraq.
The only relevant figures would be to factor in our troops actually with bombs/guns, related to the number of Iraqis we have killed. A huge kill ratio I would suspect!
Our intrepid Firearms Refresher Course writer seems to have omitted the number of"Gooks," civilian and otherwise, who have gotten in the way of our bombs/bullets, or the discarded Depleted Uranium (DU) shells, the radiation from which has also been killing our own troops there since 1991.
I use that term, which originated in the Philippines in 1898, and which we have used to describe people in various nations since, where we have had the arrogance to proclaim that we're bringing 'em Democracy.
In the Philippines, we killed about 600,000, although the Army's figures list only about 220,000; McNamara acknowledges perhaps 3 million killed in Vietnam; and the figures have only begun for Iraq, although M. Albright noted, as early as 1995, that the 500,000 kids dying from our policies were"worth the price."
And, We dare to call ourselves a Christian nation? Of course, that phrase itself is a contradiction in terms, since real Christianity had little to do with nation states or empires until Constantine nationalized it in an effort to try to save the floundering Roman Imperial Welfare State.
This is the legacy the Marina-Huerta Educ. Found. will have to cope with as we go abroad to try to help people with our own version of community building.
I am reminded of JQ Adams comments on July 4. 1821, that"America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy." And, what would it profit us if we pursued that goal, but in the process lost our own souls?
Well, less than 200 years later (actually, only about 77 to 1898), we are out there seeking monsters, and those who follow the Empire, and Emperor GeoII/43, in my view, are, indeed, in danger of losing their souls, or, whatever small sense of humanity they still have left.
I will send a separate comment, if time permits, with respect to your Katrina/Welfare State piece, which you also forwarded to me.
On that subject, you might want to read, the journalist (from KC, Kan.) H.J. Haskell's great book (1938, 1943), The New Deal in Old Rome.
Right now, both in Iraq and New Orleans,"reality," seems to be blowing back, a real wash out!
Regards, & May the Tao & Peace be with You, Bill Marina, Exec. Dir. Marina-Huerta Educ. Found.