We have access to so much information these days, yet so many of us believe everything we are told is the complete truth.
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A few weeks ago, the New York Times published a lengthy, front page article that generally portrayed returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as psychotic killers who should never be trusted with small children.
The story focused on "research" done by the newspaper that found 121 cases of returning veterans who had killed (murder, manslaughter and in some cases DUI).
The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.
The article angered me. I wasn't surprised that military veterans commit murder, but that it NEVER crossed the "brilliant" literary minds of the New York Times to give statistical data to back up this "quiet phenomenon" as they describe it. You'll understand why in just a minute.
Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that these 121 killings came from a population of veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan of about 700,000. 121 acts of murder, out of 700,000 veterans spread over six years, yields a rate of 2.88 murders per 100,000 veterans, per year.
Interestingly enough, the Department of Justice publishes statistics on homicide offenders (general population). The US offender rate for homicide in the 18 - 24 year old range is 26.5/100,000. For 25 - 34 year olds, it is 13.5/100,000.
Do you see a problem here? Yes, that's right, your chances of being killed by a returning Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran are at least FOUR TIMES LOWER than your chances of being killed by someone who never served.
This story does nothing more than attempt to exploit the acts of troops who have committed crimes since they returned to the state and suggest that being a part of the military made these people do what they did. It is an insult to all the troops who serve honorably and act with honor and dignity when they return home - it is an insult to me.
They should stick to crossword puzzles.
2 comments:
You're using logic. That's not fair!
That kind of "research" is ridiculous. I hate it when journalists play with the numbers to suit the story they WANT to tell instead of the story that IS.
It is good to see the comparative breakdown of the veteran to non-veteran populations in those statistics.
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