Iraq propoganda email

Eric5273 · #1 10-13-2007, 03:41 PM

I don't know if any of you received this email, but a friend forwarded it to me today:

Subject: This really says it all!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here's a sobering statistic. There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,867 deaths. That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq .

Conclusion:
The U.S. should pull out of Washington

It sounds pretty crazy, but I figured it was probably correct until I started to do the math in my head. Here is what I wrote back to her:

Assuming your numbers for Iraq are correct, 2867 killed out of 160,000 is a total death rate of 1792 per 100,000 over the entire period. Divide that by 22 months and you have a monthly death rate of 81.4 per 100,000 persons, not 60.

As for the Washington numbers, in 2006 there were 169 people murdered in Washington DC out of a total population of 581,530. That calculates to a total death rate of 29.06 deaths per 100,000 for the entire year. Divide that by 12 months in the year, and you have a monthly death rate of 2.42 per 100,000 persons.
(Source: http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/dccrime.htm)

So the real numbers are:

Iraq: 81.4 per 100,000

Washington DC: 2.42, per 100,000

So you are 33 times more likely to be murdered in Iraq than in Washington DC.

I wouldn't be shocked if this one is listed somewhere on Snopes, but I didn't check. It really is crazy the progoganda and lies that people will spread to sell this war to the public.

Sponsored Links

Best Man · #2 10-13-2007, 09:48 PM

I wonder who sold ur email address to them...

Eric5273 · #3 10-13-2007, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Best Man

I wonder who sold ur email address to them...

It was just an email being forwarded around the internet and I received it from a friend who sent it to everyone on her email list.

Best Man · #4 10-14-2007, 12:00 AM

so u told all that info to ur friend instead of the person who originally wrote the email? kinda dumb.

Eric5273 · #5 10-14-2007, 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Best Man

so u told all that info to ur friend instead of the person who originally wrote the email? kinda dumb.

I have no idea who originally wrote the email. If I had to guess, probably someone who profits from the war or works for someone who does.

asawadude · #6 10-14-2007, 01:57 AM

Since you have time to debunk old email hoaxes, perhaps you can investigate this one:

Subject: Caution

I know a lot of rumors have been going around about planned or possibly planned terrorist attacks. Most of these e-mails I read and pretty much go on about my day. This however sounds SERIOUS!

Don't go to the bathroom on October 28th. CIA intelligence reports that a major plot is planned for that day. Anyone who takes a poop on the 28th will be bitten on the butt by an alligator. Reports indicate that organized groups of alligators are planning to rise up into unsuspecting American's toilet bowls and bite them when they are doing their dirty business.

I usually don't send emails like this, but I got this information from a reliable source. It came from a friend of a friend whose cousin is dating this girl whose brother knows this guy whose wife knows this lady whose husband buys hotdogs from this guy who knows a shoeshine guy who shines the shoes of a mailroom worker who has a friend whose drug dealer sells drugs to another mailroom worker who works in the CIA building. He apparently overheard two guys talking in the bathroom about alligators and came to the conclusion that we are going to be attacked. So it must be true.