Couple of Iraqi election links
First, the brothers at Iraq the Model give their account of how the voting went:
I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world’s tyrants. I put the paper in the box and with it, there were tears that I couldn’t hold; I was trembling with joy and I felt like I wanted to hug the box but the supervisor smiled at me and said “brother, would you please move ahead, the people are waiting for their turn”.
Yes brothers, proceed and fill the box! These are stories that will be written on the brightest pages of history.
And Paul Boutin points out that booze > insurgents:
Number of people killed in Iraq on election day: 35 (source: The New York Times, 1/31/05)
Average number of Americans killed daily by drunk drivers: 47 (source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2003 data)
January 31st, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Population of Iraq: 25,374,691 (source: http://worldfacts.us/Iraq.htm)
Number of licensed drivers in the United States: 196.7 million (source: http://www.iii.org/media/facts/statsbyissue/highway/?table_sort_735921=3)
When you use those figures to come up with a “probability of being killed during this activity” kind of number for each, voting in Iraq is still apparently much more dangerous. I think I understand what Paul Boutin was getting at, but if he’s going to use numbers, he should compare apples to apples.
January 31st, 2005 at 5:05 pm
The thing that struck my mind was that the drunk driver number was a daily number. How many times a year do you vote? How many times a year do you drive?
Of course, comparing national statistics can be rather meaningless. I bet it was a lot safer in certain parts of Iraq to vote than others. Population density and other demographics certainly changes the drunken driver statistics across the country, not to mention the fact that if I do all of my driving from 8:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. I’m a lot more likely to get into an accident with a drunken driver, even though I don’t drink myself.
January 31st, 2005 at 8:44 pm
of course in the north where the kurds are, no trouble was even expected. the same goes for the solidly shi’ite areas in the south. so its even a bit of a stretch to be saying 35 out of 25 mil. wouldn’t it be more fair to put up a 35 out of (# of people that actually voted in the high risk areas)? just my thought.