Imagine you're under fire in an Iraqi street. A roadside bomb has just killed one of your fellow soldiers, you're drawing heavy fire from Kalashnikovs and improvised explosives. Things are looking bad. But then one of your fellow troops recites something he read on LGF yesterday.
You can clearly see that the rate of US soldiers lost in the Iraq war is MUCH lower than the lowest fatality rate observed in the US in the year 2000. The average fatality rate of OIF soldiers per year is about 774 soldiers per year.At that moment everything seems better. You remind yourself that you'll include that in the letter home to the dead soldiers parents. To cheer them up a bit as well.
The desperation for good news has never been so apparent.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=19725_Damned_Lies_and_Statistics&only
4 comments:
If it's so much safer over in Iraq, I guess the keyboard warriors truly are the many and the brave. No more calling them 'Yellow Elephants', Jesus' General! They are braver than the troops!
What a trip they must be on.
Also interesting that Charles titles the post, without irony, using (some of) Disraeli's quote: "there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics", ie. statistics are the biggest lies of all. For once, some truth on LGF!
Why don't you get on the LGF thread and argue your point?
Easy to throw bombs from afar...
RTLM
Easy to throw bombs from afar...
About as easy as being a general from your armchair I suppose....
Damn! I'm moving to Iraq, it's obviously much safer there than in the USA!
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