Friday, October 01, 2004
What's the point?
Saw the news Forces Kill 125 Insurgents in Samarra, thought it's the largest number of Iraqi (people? insurgents? do we care?) killed in a single day as recent as I can remember, I understand that "Number of Americans killed in combat" has always been a big deal, such as CNN.com - US death toll in Iraq passes 1,000 - Sep 8, 2004, it's even as big as debateable in Presidential race.
Yes, I truely felt, and understood that "American lives are precious" (美国人命值钱), but what about other countries? What about Chinese, Russian, Indian? What about Iraqi?
I don't really understand that much politics, so I can't understand the purpose/justice of invading Iraq, and I have long ago lost my trust of US media on these political issues, I just read them as they come, then think, check other sources, then think again.
American lives are precious, and we have lost over 1000 of them, what about Iraqis? How many Iraqi have lost their lifes due to this war (invasion in my mind)?
So after a little study on the net, I found that there are actually people tracking it (yeah, why not), according to http://www.iraqbodycount.net/, there are between 13,000 to 15,000 Iraqi people died from the war, in another word, for each American died in the war, there will be about 13-15 Iraqi people died.
We all easily know that's greatly contributed to the advanced military technology, like by in large everything else are determined in this country, that could partially explain why this country thinks the way it thinks, and why this country did what it did, to a lot of degrees, isn't that why we immigrants came to this country?
However, this perpetual push to technology advancement sometimes loses its own balance, sometimes even its original purpose! We do things because it uses advanced technology, because it develops new ways to 'enable' people to do things differently.
For example, people talk to people, family talk to family, when people have telephone, don't we actually 'see' each other less? now we even have cell-phone, you have all the reason NOT to see your friends and family.
Back to the casualty issue, it really reminds of a past blockbuster movie Speed (1994) , to save about 10 people, the fighted with the bomber (terrist?), that's good, then during the whole course, it crashed so many cars, who knows how many people were killed in those cars, finally crashed into an over $100M airplane (how many people in there?), and still claim a victory? I don't get it then, but I think I sort of get a little now, that's really a typical thinking in the US, They set a goal, and stick to it, man, they really STICK to it. Isn't that a perfect example this President and government are setting for all people in the US and the whole world?
Yes, I truely felt, and understood that "American lives are precious" (美国人命值钱), but what about other countries? What about Chinese, Russian, Indian? What about Iraqi?
I don't really understand that much politics, so I can't understand the purpose/justice of invading Iraq, and I have long ago lost my trust of US media on these political issues, I just read them as they come, then think, check other sources, then think again.
American lives are precious, and we have lost over 1000 of them, what about Iraqis? How many Iraqi have lost their lifes due to this war (invasion in my mind)?
So after a little study on the net, I found that there are actually people tracking it (yeah, why not), according to http://www.iraqbodycount.net/, there are between 13,000 to 15,000 Iraqi people died from the war, in another word, for each American died in the war, there will be about 13-15 Iraqi people died.
We all easily know that's greatly contributed to the advanced military technology, like by in large everything else are determined in this country, that could partially explain why this country thinks the way it thinks, and why this country did what it did, to a lot of degrees, isn't that why we immigrants came to this country?
However, this perpetual push to technology advancement sometimes loses its own balance, sometimes even its original purpose! We do things because it uses advanced technology, because it develops new ways to 'enable' people to do things differently.
For example, people talk to people, family talk to family, when people have telephone, don't we actually 'see' each other less? now we even have cell-phone, you have all the reason NOT to see your friends and family.
Back to the casualty issue, it really reminds of a past blockbuster movie Speed (1994) , to save about 10 people, the fighted with the bomber (terrist?), that's good, then during the whole course, it crashed so many cars, who knows how many people were killed in those cars, finally crashed into an over $100M airplane (how many people in there?), and still claim a victory? I don't get it then, but I think I sort of get a little now, that's really a typical thinking in the US, They set a goal, and stick to it, man, they really STICK to it. Isn't that a perfect example this President and government are setting for all people in the US and the whole world?
