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The Rural War
NY Times ^ | July 20, 2005 | ROBERT CUSHING and BILL BISHOP

Posted on 07/20/2005 1:08:09 PM PDT by neverdem

WHICH American communities pay the highest price for the war in Iraq? A look at the demographics of soldiers killed reveals that Iraq is not the war of any one race or region. Rather, it is rural America's war.

Altogether, a nearly equal percentage of Americans aged 18 to 54 live in counties with a million or more inhabitants as live in counties of 100,000 or fewer. And yet, of the soldiers who have died in Iraq, 342 came from densely populated counties while 536 came from smaller ones. Derived from Pentagon and census data, this chart shows the Iraqi war death rates for every 100,000 people ages 18 to 54 by the size of their county's population.

The difference is visible not just in the size of a soldier's county of origin, but also in its location. Counties disconnected from urban areas tend to have higher death rates, regardless of population size. Small rural counties have a death rate nearly twice that of counties that have the same population but happen to be part of metropolitan areas.

Why should this be? It's not that Iraqi insurgents are singling out rural soldiers, or that commanders are putting them at particular risk. Rather, the armed forces themselves must be disproportionately drawn from rural communities - a fact not immediately discernible from recruitment data, which report the race, age and education of recruits, but not their home counties.

This is above all an economics story. Military studies consistently find that a poor economy is a boon to recruiting. The higher rate of deaths from rural counties likely reflects sparse opportunities for young people in those places.

When the Iraq war memorials go up in years to come, these monuments to heroism and sacrifice will be found less often in thriving urban centers...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: death; demographics; dying; iraq; kiademographics; population; urbanareas
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May God have mercy and bless them all.


1 posted on 07/20/2005 1:08:16 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

It could be that urban soldiers tend to have more street smarts, and in a war that is being fought in the streets that is a material advantage to survival.


2 posted on 07/20/2005 1:10:34 PM PDT by thoughtomator (Abortion kills liberals)
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To: neverdem
The city dwellers are a mostly mix of cowardly wimps and semi-civilized thugs.

Neither are willing or able to step up and do the job of defending America.

3 posted on 07/20/2005 1:11:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: neverdem

I'm sure the New York Times really gives a damn that rural people are dying.


4 posted on 07/20/2005 1:12:22 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (The enemy lies in the heart of Gadsden)
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To: neverdem

They are recycling this stuff again.


5 posted on 07/20/2005 1:13:04 PM PDT by Bahbah (Something wicked this way comes)
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To: neverdem

Could it be that rural counties are more conservative and patriotic?


6 posted on 07/20/2005 1:14:33 PM PDT by Between the Lines (Be careful how you live your life, it may be the only gospel anyone reads.)
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To: Bahbah
Probably a similar story ran during the Vietnam War, knowing the Times.
7 posted on 07/20/2005 1:16:22 PM PDT by Sybeck1 (chance is the “magic wand to make not only rabbits but entire universes appear out of nothing.”)
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To: neverdem
This is above all an economics story.

I don't suppose they are seeking to balance things out by sending money out from NYC to sparsely populated counties, are they?

I hope the graph for total active duty personnel looks roughly the same as the death rate graph or they've drawn the wrong conclusion.

8 posted on 07/20/2005 1:16:28 PM PDT by siunevada
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To: Between the Lines

"Could it be that rural counties are more conservative and patriotic?"

Tell him what he wins, Johnny!


9 posted on 07/20/2005 1:16:58 PM PDT by L98Fiero
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: thoughtomator
It could be that urban soldiers tend to have more street smarts, and in a war that is being fought in the streets that is a material advantage to survival.

Utter nonsense. Read the Art of War by Machiavelli. The best soldiers come from the countryside. The worst from the city. When I was drafted, I met a hick from the hills of Kentucky. He wore coke bottle glasses which made him look helpless as any other four-eyed wimp I met growing up in the city. At the rifle range, I watch him constantly hit 300 meter targets. It turns out that hillbillies know how to shoot, hunt, and survive.

11 posted on 07/20/2005 1:18:38 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (Some say what's good for others, the others make the goods; it's the meddlers against the peddlers)
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To: ChenangoShooter.308

Good bet.


12 posted on 07/20/2005 1:18:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: BenLurkin

Granted it's not like you are talking to a New Yorker or anything, but I am a city dweller and so I do take offense to the comment you have made above.

Now, as for this whole issue of rural v urban

It's a NYT smokescreen to try and raise a sort of rural populism to their cause that the left assembled from 1880-1950

It ain't gonnna happen this time around though, so their efforts are being wasted.


13 posted on 07/20/2005 1:18:48 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (The enemy lies in the heart of Gadsden)
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To: neverdem

This is nothing more than the usual bull@#%* way of trying to drive a wedge by using class warfare. This time it's thinnly disguised. Rural soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have allways been the majority as long as I've been on active duty. So what?!!! Who cares?!!! That is just the way it is. We have an all volunteer force, these just happen to be the people that chose to volunteer and serve their country, and 99.9% of them do it honorably!!! The NY Times needs to STFU and fix itself!!


14 posted on 07/20/2005 1:19:19 PM PDT by sean327 (All men are created equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: ChenangoShooter.308

I'd say your answer is most probably correct.


15 posted on 07/20/2005 1:19:50 PM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear tipped ICBMs: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol.)
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To: AzaleaCity5691
Do they have cities in Alabama?

JUST KIDDING!!!

16 posted on 07/20/2005 1:19:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: ChenangoShooter.308

Actually, rural recruits will tend to gravitate towards the army, for whatever reason, where recruits from more populated areas will gravitate towards the other branches.


17 posted on 07/20/2005 1:21:25 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (The enemy lies in the heart of Gadsden)
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To: BenLurkin
You forgot the ones with criminal records.
18 posted on 07/20/2005 1:21:44 PM PDT by dts32041 ( Dear Senator Durbin, I am not an Illinois Nazi. (US ARMY RET))
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To: sean327

Rural soldiers=White Boys that join the infantry to fight.

Urban soldiers=Minority kids that join the military to get out of the inner city hell hole.

Also, how many inner city utes are eligible for service with criminal records?


19 posted on 07/20/2005 1:22:07 PM PDT by IGOTMINE (Front Sight. Press. Follow Through. It's a way of life.)
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To: neverdem
When the Iraq war memorials go up in years to come, these monuments to heroism and sacrifice will be found less often in thriving urban centers than in lagging rural communities.

While the author feigns concern for rural communities, this statement shows his bias for urban areas.

20 posted on 07/20/2005 1:24:59 PM PDT by Between the Lines (Be careful how you live your life, it may be the only gospel anyone reads.)
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