I don’t know whether the BBC will devote a report to the fact that May has been among the least violent of the Iraq war- it could be confirmed as the producing the lowest US casualty figures depending on events today and tomorrow. I don’t know if they’ll register that the six month figure for that is the lowest for any period since the fighting began in 2003 source. Iraq could be arriving at peace.
What I do know is that the BBC will report this against the backdrop of bad news, pre-announced bad news– covered in some depth. Somehow the BBC’s attitude for statistics tends only to work in selected directions.
So the US, a country with 303m people and an army at war, has 115 suicides in its army, while Russia (144m) has 341 suicides in its army (BBC May 28), tho’ not at war; and the US army rate is lower than the civilian rate of suicide. Is it too much to ask these journalists to dig a little deeper into the meaning of statistics and to compare like with like? or to ask which demographic is most prone to suicide in any case? or the reasons?
Ahh, beaten to it.
Could this be the bad news against which the Beeb will annonce the low casualty rate figure?
If so, then it looks like the Beeb simply HAS to have the “pleasure” of seeing US soldiers dead. If it can’t get ’em via casualties, then it gets them some other way.
Sorry if that seems callous, but it really feels like that to me…
The beebers just want the coalition to “lose” – whatever that may mean and whatever the consequences. Then they can smugly say “I told you so”.
Along the way they rejoice at every setback or problem.
Its called “institutional schadenfreude”.
Why does the BBC never turn its guns against Gordon Brown and Nu Labour for the treatment of OUR soldiers?
Perhaps they don’t want to remind the public that the sainted Gordon is as much involved in theIraq war as Blair and Bush?
However, the US media doesn’t report the good news from Iraq either.
Suicide rates for US military have risen… and each is painfully a personal tragedy for the person and his family.
But, you need a baseline comparison to make informed comment.
If you look at the NATIONAL suicide rates of males and then young males (whom I assume we all acknowledge is the profile of the fighting troops) then the US national suicide rate and the military suicide rate are almost identical.
Suicide in the military is 17.5 per 100,000.
2005: All Men — 25,907 in total suicides at a rate of 17.7 per 100,000.
2005: Young men (15-24) — 3,498 at a rate of 16.2 per 100,000.
Women account for 14.6% of the US military, primarily in non-combat roles. They have a lower suicide rate in the general popluation than men.
This is the same BBC that was caught out lying in it’s reporting from Iraq. And fabricated the UK army
desertion story. And fabricated alleged war crimes by US troops in Fallujah. Check this out for a whole book of BBC “slight anomalies”, otherwise known as lies:
http://ussneverdock.blogspot.com/2005/01/bbc-is-turn-off-
its-official.html
The BBC should be be publicly shamed for continuing to look away when
Iraq has not failed in the way that they wished.
18 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq in May 2008, up to the 30th. This is 18 too many, but a marked reduction on the 126 who lost their lives in May 2007. It’s going to be interesting to see how the BBC covers this significant story. Currently their top Iraq story on the BBC news website is feeble – “Marine removed over coin claim – A US marine is removed from duty over claims he distributed coins with biblical verses to citizens in Iraq.” The BBC doesn’t miss any opportunity to show the US in a bad light.
“Sorry if that seems callous, but it really feels like that to me…”
Not at all. The BBC’s demented hatred of the USA is second only to its antisemitism.
compare;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7429879.stm
with
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL01687040
Is it at four year low or a a wartime low.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
So the BBC can’t check even the most basic facts. And why the quotation marks?
Thanks Mike- it’s the presentation and detail as well as the selectivity. You’re right there.