The New York Times - "War on Terror Vets Murder People"

Posted By Blackfive

"The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas. What is clear to me, is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war." - LTG Ricardo Sanchez, former Commander MNF-Iraq (to reporters upon retirement October 2007).

I've received quite a bit of email about the latest New York Times journalistic hit job on our troops.

First, the NYTimes published an article about 121 soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan to commit murder:   

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: "Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife." Pierre, S.D.: "Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress." Colorado Springs: "Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring."   

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.   

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...

I believe that Marc Danziger, Armed Liberal at Winds of Change, was the first of many to take the NYTimes to the woodshed by looking into the numbers.  Statistically, he laughs at the mental prowess of the authors:

rpely

..well, what does it mean? How do these 121 murderers compare with the base rate of murderers in the population?

And the answer appears to be damn well...

Check out Marc's whole response.

And I particularly like Phil Carter's response to the NYTimes over at IntelDump:

...So, basically, the reporters went trolling on Lexis-Nexis and other databases to find "murder" within the same paragraph as "veteran" or "soldier," and built a front-page story around that research. They compared the pre-war numbers to the post-war numbers and found that, voila!, there's a difference. And then it looks like they cherry-picked the best anecdotes out of that research (including the ones where they could get interviews and photos) to craft a narrative which fit the data. The article makes no attempt to produce a statistically valid comparison of homicide rates among vets to rates among the general population. Nor does it rely at all on Pentagon data about post-deployment incidents of violence among veterans. It basically just generalizes from this small sample (121 out of 1.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan vets, not including civilians and contractors) to conclude that today's generation of veterans are coming home full of rage and ready to kill.

I've got a one-word verdict on this article and its research: bullshit...

Phil tears them apart and does give them the benefit of the doubt about being shoddy journalists rather than agenda driven hacks.

And my inbox is full of people outraged by the article.  Lisan sends one of the more succinct emails about the effect the article might have - the NYTimes piece was carried by the Sacramento Bee on the front page:

...Last night, my momma and I were at the Sacramento Airport to help greet a number of returning Soldiers, including SPC Michael Hamilton, whose story was written up by the Bee in December; and other members of the 3/61, Captain Andrew White and SPC Abrams.  We also were there when many members of an Air Force Medical wing deployed from Travis Air Base returned from Afghanistan.  Present were family, Patriot Guard, and many other supporters who had gotten the call to welcome these men and women home.

I bring this up because one of the Patriot Guard riders at the airport spoke to my momma and me about coming home from Vietnam and almost being thrown in jail after some punk called him a baby killer...Our Vietnam Vets have been instrumental in making sure that now, our returning Soldier, Airmen, Marines and Sailors are not greeted with such disrespect and insult.

That was all I could think about this morning as I stood in line at the grocery store with that Bee headline screaming at every checkout line.  Our men and women came home last night to a happy, welcoming crowd, who were more than pleased to see them and thank them for their service to our beloved country.  And this morning, those same men and women will see a local paper with a prominent headline implying they are murdering criminals let loose in our society.  This meme is a little too close to what the Vietnam Veteran experienced 30 years ago, and I thought you should know...

Sloppy work or intentionally malicious, either way the NYTimes has made a mistake...again.

You can email your concern to the Public Editor of the New York Times here.

Update:  Ralph Peters has something to say as well:

...Those on the left will never accept that the finest young Americans are those who risk their lives defending freedom. Sen. John Kerry summed up the views of the left perfectly when he disparaged our troops as too stupid to do anything but sling hamburgers.

And The New York Times will never forgive our men and women in uniform for their infuriating successes in Iraq.

Well said.

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» The New York Times Defames The Troops. from Ace of Spades HQ
Yesterday the NY Times ran a major front page story that catalogued 121 homicides attributed to Iraq and Afghanistan vets after returning home. In a long story (9 pages on the web), the Times paints a vivid picture of violence... [Read More]

Comments

[mindy1]

sigh-I knew this would happen when that Marine Murder story hit. They seem to ignore the fact that most members of the military are good people who would never do this to another person let alone a fellow marine. I have a book about one of the many GOOD marines. Read Gift of Valor about Dunham-it's great.

[Deltabravo]

Correlation is not causality. Do they compare their wobbly statistics with murder and violence rates of never-deployed military? (Military people, by their very nature, are trained to use effective force. So let's just give credit where it is due and figure they might be more successful at an attempt to kill someone if they were so inclined than a civilian. But that doesn't explain whether they are more likely to do so.)

Just another example of the NYSlime's complete anti-military, anti-GWOT bias.

[dnice]

Not surpised by the twisting of numbers. Thanks for calling them out.

I've also noticed that the prime time dramas recently like the discharged veteran as a good crime suspect charcter (along with jabs about the WOT).

[Miss Ladybug]

Mindy1~

I thought the same thing. However, one thing I haven't heard in any of the reporting was the military history of Cpl. Laurean. I do know that one of the authors at A Soldier's Perspective worked with him at one time, and he writes about his reaction to this story here. Marcus doesn't say anything about Laurean having been deployed, either, and as the victim in this case was in some sort of administrative position, even if he had been deployed, I doubt he would have been in the same sort of "high stress" situations as those Marines who are regularly outside the wire. But, the left will use anything as an excuse to beat up on the military, I guess...

[Miss Ladybug]

Rick Leventhal is reporting on this on FNC right now (America's Pulse). Saying murder rate is in line with general population, and up to 12 times less likely to kill people in vehicle accidents. He's beating them up about not comparing to general population stats...

[Miss Ladybug]

Leventhal just commented that some people going into the military to straighten themselves out might actually help keep the crime rates down... Gotta love him for saying nice things about our mlitary!

[Chuck Ziegenfuss (TCOverride)]

Hang on there, cowboy.

I actually want people to think that all of us Iraq vets are damaged--mentally as well as physically--by the war. I want people to believe that we are if not likely, at least inclined to commit murder or do violence on others.

The NYT is helping to set a precedent--that we are somehow damged by Chimpy McHaliburton's illegal war, and therefore, given our nanny gummint, not responsible for act we commit. Indeed, the fault is not ours, it's the administration's fault that we are this way, we joined up and served in good faith, we, the veterans, are victims.

Why, you ask, do I want people to believe this way? Because when a veteran walks into the offices of the editors of the grey whore, and shoots every last one of them in the testicles,(or breasticles)then people won't see that vet as a murderer, but as a poor, misunderstood person who had lost his youth and his values and his faith because of the government's lies.

I'm still planning my PTSD murder.

--Chuck

[jordan]

So, the NYT goes on a journalistic fishing expedition, searching for 'veteran', 'Iraq' and 'murder' to see if there's any data out there that can be sculpted to support their preordained presumptions.

First off, how come the NYT article tells no anecdotes about any AFGHANISTAN vets? Why are all of them Iraq vet stories? People have seen horrors and tough fighting in Afghanistan, too. Are there any Afghanistan vets w/PTSD, or is it just something in the water in Iraq?

It must magically follow that any "correct" or "Democratic" war does not result in PTSD cases. Also, they've glossed over the fact that some of the vets they choose to highlight may not have been in combat, or never left their bases.

This article is an incitement to violence and discrimination against vets that would never be published about any other group, such as African Americans or gays. Everyone's already pointed out the noxious, agenda-driven nature of this thing, including Phil Carter's extremely measured, restrained, and far too charitable assessment.

Maybe, I wonder, is there any correlation between alcoholism and having worked in the media business? Are such people more likely to commit crimes? Gee, it's fun to go fishing.

In a speech today, Bill Clinton raised the prospect of sending troops into Darfur. But I guess since it's a Democrat's proposal, no one would come back with PTSD. Whew, that's good.

[DANEgerus]

As the murder rate for this demographic, young military men, is 1/6th that of the general population, clearly the NYTimes is advocating both universal service and universal deployment to Iraq for all young men.

Also, based upon this exhaustive NYTimes study of their own bias, in which they have demonstrated that stories exaggerating the violent tendencies of American Servicement are increasing in number, the NYTimes has proven... their own bias.

[rick554]

BULLSHIT is how I see the NYT as well. False reporting, giving away classified info and downright lying is what we should expect from this liberal rag. I feel badly for my parakeet, Jawncary. He has to look at this garbage everyday.

[GI]

I highly encourage everyone to read through the cases the NY Times includes in their homicide numbers. They included incidents that clearly had nothing to do with whether these people deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or not.

They included people in their tally who were acquitted of charges, they included people that killed someone in self defense, they included a guy that was charged with manslaughter because he lost control of his car during a drag race, another guy severely injured his infant son before deploying who died later and many more incidents that could not be linked to PTSD.

[defendusa]

GI- Good eye...I did an info search on what they reported and nearly had a stroke reading what the slimes calls "journalism"! SSDD, for them. I suppose we could use a paper like that to wipe our assses with. That's about all it's good for- shitt for shitt. Period.

[Cincinnati_Bob]

Rick. Lol. Squawk!

[JoeS]

Dear NY Times,

I almost want to thank you for proving to my high school government class that I am correct when I talk about the anti-military bigotry of the MSM. I will show them your article and then I will do the math with them in class. Your writers are really stupid if they cannot do simple arithmetic. Do you even have editors to check? evidently not.

I suggest that you spend your time investigating the murders committed against Americans by illegal immigrant gang members. The numbers might be on your side for that one.

Oh, that is not one of the points on your journalism agenda? Silly of me to think that you really cared about Americans being murdered. You only want to smear the military.

You are disgusting. You make me look like a genius, that's not easy!

Joe Sackett
Long Beach (CA) Poly High School

[Cincinnati_Bob]

JoeS. I feel for you because you are now deeply into this political crap, as opposed to myself, who had a rootin tootin good time, sans political crap until I was over 40. (I came out to vote against Al Gore in 2000)
At the same time, I believe the issues today are going to require people like yourself educating themselves and paying attention earlier on.
All the best Joe. Rock on.

[Miss Ladybug]

C_B~

Educating themselves, and then educating their students. This isn't something that would be an effective "real life lesson" for the students I currently work with as a sub - I usually work with the younger elementary kids. Maybe 4th or 5th grade, but I don't work with them much...

[JoeS]

Thank You, Bob!

Actually, I have the greatest job in the world, stimulating inner-city kids to see beyond the "Free! Free!" siren calls of the Left. (Picture a piglet sucking up to Momma pig... Ayn Rand)

Newsweek printed a column by Robert Samuelson about the fiscal earthquake facing our youth when we Baby Boomers retire. The math is devastating. We are now spending 40% of our budget on Social Security, etc for senior citizens, by 2030 it will be 70%. We did the math on that one and all of a sudden, "Free" Health care was not such a good "investment." We need to quit wasting money!

The sad thing is that with the dismal state of teachers' unions and the teaching profession. Simple facts like Fiscal Irresponsibility, Free Lunch, plus Anti-Military bigotry are not taught. Public schools are just an extension of the far left and huge propaganda machines. Not much teaching, not much thinking.

I get more resistance from other teachers than from my students. I have the personality defect of enjoying controversy. I try to stir it up with the other teachers and let the kids see the arguments from both sides.

I can't believe I get paid to do all day in the classroom what I enjoy doing in the evenings on the Internet.

Blackfive is a must stop every day! You gentlemen run a good show!!

God bless you all!

[caughtintheact]

As much as I hate to state the obvious, if we really had a huge number of mujrderers returning from any battlefield, there would not be any writers or editors left at the NYT to produce these pathetic, despicable articles.

[Piper17]

"The more things change, the more they remain the same" Here, we have another case of history repeating itself.

The MSM and Hollywood did this very same thing to the Vietnam Veterans and kept at it for decades. Newspapers, television, movies all portrayed the Vietnam Veteran as a stoned, pathetic, deranged "victim" prone to murder, mayhem, and other forms of anti-social behaviour. Now, they are trying to do it to another generation of warriors.

DON'T buy their papers, don't watch their television shows, and don't go to their movies!

DO let them hear your voices in letters, telephone calls, and emails.

[ikez78]

These people that write this crap are really the scum of the earth. The fact that they don't see their "work" as controversial is the biggest problem.

[Grimmy]

IMO (which is never humble) teachers like JoeS are a primary reason we still have a country worth fighting for.

Thank you, sir. For your service in the educational trenches.

[Cincinnati_Bob]

Miss Ladybug. Agreed. Grade school is too early. Though history class is a good start. I was definitely thinking high school to really start grinding on current issues. National healthcare because it is something that will affect us all very deeply and very negatively in fairly short order.

[Cincinnati_Bob]

I can't believe I get paid to do all day in the classroom what I enjoy doing in the evenings on the Internet.

Ah, yes I did take you for a student rather than teacher. But all the better. Well, we would be preaching to each other's choir. When did the classroom go from stimulating debate learning to total thought stifling propaganda... Sad state of affairs, but it's great to know you are there to keep the fire burning. I hope there are many more.

[playertwo]

question: who reads the NYT?
dinasour boomers with money thats who.. and other presstitutes in lesser rags that want to know whats 'really going on'. and then there's us conservatives that just cant believe their gall. my point? theyre last gasping.
they are pathetic.
I just got done watching tax funded pbs's frontline about the rinos in congress trying to rewrite the constitution and usurp the presidency. all the nyt scum were straight out of central casting but they had to have this constant voice over going of super serious ominous overtones. are these people just gone or what. we need a new revolution.

[dnice]

The Wall Street Journal today has a quick Op-ed countering the NY Times article entitled:

The 'Wacko Vet Myth'
January 16, 2008; Page A12.

[Deltabravo]

One of the NYSlime's telemarketers made the mistake of interrupting more important work to try to convince me to take out a subscription. I had to patiently explain to him that the only reason I'd let that rag into my house would be to paper-train my Labrador. But I couldn't do that with a clear conscience, because that would insult my dog. To his credit, he was laughing by the end of the phone call and wished me a good day.

But I suppose that isn't a good sign when a paper has to call people in Texas to beg them to buy it.

[Cincinnati_Bob]

Yep. NYT is in serious trouble, financial not the least of it.

Given the internet, who reads newspapers anymore. This is a dying medium to me in general. Do people want news now or yesterday's news? I imagine a few quality offerings like the Wall Street Journal will survive quite a bit longer, but I don't know anyone who subscribes to or buys a newspaper.