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 ...
Alabama does not belong on this list, because it's not comparable to any of the states on this list.
I think unemployment in Mobile County is in the 5% range, but I know in the county just to the north of us, it is above 15%
I wonder what those 'inner city utes' who are in Iraq right now fighting would reply to your post. I also wonder if you would have the guts to go up to them and ask them if they were there trying to escape 'inner city life.'
Not only is your brush stroke too wide, your logic is also atrophied. And not only that, but you make it seem as if the 'white boys' are joining the military for patriotic reasons, while the 'black kids' are hiking a ride. I wonder how many of your 'white boys' joined the armed services due to college money, and how many 'inner city utes' joined the military due to it being the only option available.
I also wonder if you would be able to differentiate, were you to look at the spilt blood from brave soldiers downed in Iraq, which was from a 'white boy' (patriotic and all), and which was from a 'black kid' (escaping from the ghetto). After all you must have some methodology of differentiating between patriot's blood and ghetto-escapee blood, huh?
IMHO, the only real issue here, is the Times scents what it percieves as a potential Red State wedge it's trying to develop for Ms. Hillarhea.......
What bubble is that? Nothing that you have stated contradicts anything in my post. Did you read the article? It specifically states, "A look at the demographics of soldiers killed reveals that Iraq is not the war of any one race or region.".
Do you doubt for a moment that if the data showed poor black soldiers dying at a disproportionate rate the NY Times would not have run with that as the focal point of the article?
Urban does not necessarily mean for Kerry and rural doesn't necessarily mean for Bush.
George Bush carried Harris County, TX.
George Bush lost Jim Hogg County, TX.
Someone enlighten me, which county is rural and which is urban
George Bush also carried Duval County, FL. Anyone familiar with that area knows that Duval County is coextensive with the City of Jacksonville.
I would also be willing to bet that Bush carried Miami proper.
Now, as for the idea that the Dakotas and Wyoming can be compared to Alabama.
The most populous county in Alabama has 660,000 residents.
The most populous county in South Dakota has 150,000 residents.
The most populous county in Wyoming has 84,000 residents.
Alabama has 3 metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents, and one of those has a population of over 1,000,000.
Neither Wyoming or South Dakota have a metro area approaching 500,000 much less 1,000,000.
Let me explain something to you.
The story says that rural soldiers are dying at a disproportionate rate. Rural is not a category defined by race. Let me explain something to you, if a soldier from rural Macon County is killed, there is a 8 in 10 chance that the soldier will be black.
The bottom line is that minorities TEND to gravitate toward support MOS's. They don't do as much of the dying.
Kids raised up in rural America are more likely to be inculcated with a love of God, family and country and the knowledge that some things, and some people, are worth dying to protect.
A lot of great American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines have come from town, but as a percentage of the overall population, it's the rural kids who answer their contry's call.
You talked about the bottom line ....well, the bottom line is that anybody who joins the armed services ....be they inner city Whites or rural Blacks (believe it or not both exist), or whether they did so because they always wanted to be a soldier, or it was for scholarship money, or because their uncle as a marine, or even because of something they watched on 9/11 that got them on their feet .....all of those people are serving their nation. And I doubt any of them need someone saying all urban recruits are black kids trying to escape ghetto life.
My husband was a drill sgt for 3 years. He has been in the military for almost 16 years. He has always commented that in 'line' units, units like infantry, combat engineers(which are used as inf alot),etc,there are always less african americans(not none,just less). Also, he has many many more soldiers in his unit who are hispanic. Privates in basic training who spoke spanish and could barely speak english did well and tried very hard.
"Could it be that rural counties are more conservative and patriotic?"
That is probably true but I think the reason is it's a ticket out of these small town area's.
As a counter example, I grew up in Chicago and served my time as an M-1 crewman.
Well, then your husbands experience is about the same as my own, and is in line with the statistics that cause the army so much concern. This won't be mitigated until we are in our next major ground war.
Thank you for your service.
Thus continuing the proud tradition of using a military career to get the hell out of a nowhere small town.
You definitely pegged it on the head regarding hispanic recruits.
I had a few Puerto Ricans in my basic training. In the beginning, they could hardly speak English. But with a good deal of hard work and the help from the rest of us, they picked up a decent vocabulary very quickly.
And learning a new language is hard enough as it is, without the added stress of basic.
The Art of War
by Machiavelli
??????????????
Clearly you did not understand my post. I'll leave it at that...
Your husband's experiences and observations mesh with my son's observations. He is 11 Bravo (Infantry) and has served in 1st CAV., 2nd ID and presently is with the 3rd ID in Iraq. His Infantry units have primarily been white, actually, they probably come close to the demographics (racially speaking) of the country at large. He did say that there seems to be many blacks in Artillery, more so. Interesting. Regardless, they bleed the same, they're Amercians, they VOLUNTEERED and we love 'em all.
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