20 January 2004

232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004

501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the war - so far

0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to the Allies in May 1945

0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for soldiers killed in Iraq

100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003

13: Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President

10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for simultaneous protest

2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into the White House

9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion in March last year

1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since hostilities began

16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the conflict

$100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the end of 2003

$13 billion: Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq (much of it in loans) as of 24 October

36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable water a year ago

60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable water today

32%: Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not precision-guided

1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs

45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

$127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became President in 2001

$374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

1st: This year's deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States history

$1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day

$23,920: Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of 19 January 2004

1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 million) was set in 2002

10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and Bill Clinton 33

1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

$113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a record in American electoral history

$130 million: Amount raised for Bush's re-election campaign so far

$200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004

$40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest holiday of any president in US history (Recordholder: Richard Nixon)

13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year

3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children

1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in modern US history

2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three years of the Bush administration

221,000: Number of jobs per month created since Bush's tax cuts took effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000

1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its complete term in office

9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

55%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war

43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United Nations) with an American military presence

40%: Percentage of the world's military spending for which the US is responsible

$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet

88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes

$42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001

$116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes

44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President's economic growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

700: Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war

+6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty

1951: Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was greater than the one the previous spring

54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to his post

1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level

9: Number of members of Bush's defence policy board who also sit on the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court

$300 million: Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes

$1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to offset the "burdens" of the US war on Iraq

58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road building, logging and drilling

200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to downgrade or weaken

29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a whole army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon

90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001

53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004

Sources: Vanity Fair magazine, Harper's Index, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Army (Washington), US Department of Defence, Iraqbodycount.net, Citizens for Tax Justice, Bureau of Economic Analysis (Washington), New York Times/CBS News Poll (NYC), US Department of Commerce, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (NYC), Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad), World Health Organisation (Geneva), Office of Management and Budget (Washington), Centre for Responsive Politics (Washington), Bush-Cheney '04, Inc (Arlington, Va), Election Systems & Software (Omaha), United States Central Command (Tampa).

> 1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita

The US military is the world's biggest polluter and our energy consumption is unsubstainable. Global warming is just now starting to make itself felt beyond the arctic zones (where it's been obvious for years as the ice caps are melting away)

We have no viable alternative energy sources to continue anywhere near our present rate of consumption. This spells certain death to our way of life (the disneyland country as I refer it as) and theres no technical solution for it.

Only huge reductions in world population would even partially address this issue. The global elite are well aware of this.

This is why they kill for profit..

The guy who owns the UK Indepedent newspaper is Tony O'Reilly who is also Chairman of Heinz Corporation. The Independent employs the rabid Robert Fisk nad this paper consistently spews out vile anti-American propaganda which would have made Tass blush.

I say we boycott Heinz until they fire O'Reilly.

He's one the best reporters in the world and has been covering the middle east for years. He knows far FAR more than you do about such matters and reports the FACTS.

That smear attempt awhile back about what towns in Iraq he saw for a story fell through, but the trolls never give up, eh jerry I mean fresca I mean nonbrainious I mean barney ?

Fisk is the most rabidly biased anti-American reporter I've ever seen. The guy is heading for a nervous brakdown, he's completely bonkers.

He calls Paul Bremer the pro-Consul and calls the American governemnt the "Bush regime". This is supposed to be serious journalism in a national newspaper.

Boycott Heinz until they sack his unpatriotic paymaster, Tony O'Reilly.

"I like Robert Fisk
"

Well imagine that.

Doubt it. Look at industry in China, Eastern Europe, Russia. Not a pollution control in place anywhere.

But let's just assume for a moment you are (snicker!) correct, Hex.

What do you propose we do about it?

Put anti-pollution controls on F-16s? Make M1A1 tanks solar-powered? Replace submarine reactors withs oarsmen?

Scrap the military? Somehow I get the feeling that's your choice.

Sure. How long do you think you'd be allowed to run your widdle piwate wadio station if America is overrrun?

Good grief...do you ever stop to think before you write such inanities?

nonanarchist

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"Doubt it" at-all-costs


> assume for a moment you are (snicker!) correct


oh the horror of it - the scary truth monster attacts once more



> your widdle piwate wadio station if America is overrrun


So your speech impediment shows in your writing on here too, huh Q ?


Anyone else struck by the all-or-nothing, one extreme or another
enlightened thinking ?

either allow the military to pollute as much as they like
or think of only impractical useless alternatives

either we spend more on military than all other countries combined
or we're instantly invaded


either I use technical abilities to evade discovery of my signals points of origin under the US

or I use technical abilities to evade discovery of my signals points of origin under [fill in the instant invader]

whoops - that didn't quite work out, I guess jerry's ignorance struck out once more..



but speaking of doing away with the world's biggest polluter - BINGO

and again what mankind refuses to do mother nature will do for him

but that's just me - right ?

Please back up your assertion that the US military is the world's biggest polluter.

You'll understand if I'm hesitant to take your word for it.

nonanarchist

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Google "world's worst polluter. This is the first hit:

http://www.tai.org.au/MediaReleases_Files/MediaReleases/MRAustraliaWorstPolluter020698.htm

"Australia ?world?s worst polluter?

Australia will have by far the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person of any country in the world by 2010, according to a new report analysing the Kyoto climate change agreement released today by the Australia Institute."

Also blaming Australia:

http://www.gaiaguys.net/smh%204.11.99%20greenhouse.html

"Sydney Morning Herald

World worst on greenhouse gas

November 4th,1999

By CLAIRE MILLER

Australia has overtaken the United States as the world's worst greenhouse gas polluter, according to an analysis of United Nations statistics.

Calculated on a per capita basis, Australia emits 25 per cent more carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, than the US and more than double that of most European Union countries."

But then there's this:

http://www.climateark.org/articles/2001/1st/kymayber.htm

"US IS WORLD'S WORST POLLUTER

Stephen Singer, of the World Wildlife Fund, said the U.S. was the worst polluter not simply in terms of total emissions but also with the highest level per capita."

Hmmm...doen't mention the US military. Let's keep looking, okay?

Hey! We're getting closer!

http://www.lp.org/lpn/9811-talking.html

"The worst polluter
In the early 1990s, the National Toxic Campaign Fund (a private environmental advocacy group) labeled the military establishment the nation's worst polluter, responsible for more than 14,000 "toxic hot spots" at military bases around the nation. The environmental group estimated that, in 1989, the defense Department generated 900 million pounds of hazardous waste. No private business, or combination of companies, has anywhere near such a devastating impact on America's environment. Nevertheless, because of poorly drafted laws and regulations, the public continues to associate environmental degradation exclusively with businesses.

-- Murray Weidenbaum, The Washington Times, September 26, 1998"

Not quite there, though. Murray says us killbots are only the worst polluters in the nation. And he forgets to mention the massive remediation efforts.

And this interesting, if slightly off-topic, bit:

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.16586/pub_detail.asp

"If Greenpeace truly places the environment over ideology, why does it coddle the worst polluter the world has ever seen? He is, of course, Saddam Hussein, who, faced with defeat in 1991, set fire to 613 oil wells in Kuwait, the country he invaded. An extensive study by Geneva-based Green Cross International found that 60 million barrels of oil were released in the desert, forming 246 oil lakes, covering a surface of forty-nine square kilometers. "The smoke and soot contaminated 953 square kilometers of desert" and soiled 800 miles of coastline. "The amount of oil released was twice as large as the previous world record oil spill"-and twenty times as large as the Valdez spill in Alaska."

Gosh! Not poor, misunderstood Saddam?! Golly gee..

Say, Hex, I can't find ANYONE claiming that the US military is the world's worst polluter.

Except you, of course.

Hear that sound? That's one more chunk of your credibility flushing down the low-water-consumption toilet.

nonanarchist

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