Jeb — with all due respect, perhaps you should write for the Times with your condescending tone. I read every word of the article before I made my comment, and my comment remains the same. If the Times couldn’t get the statistics (and I hope you don’t think it is now the Pentagon’s responsibility to maintain statistics on every crime that every veteran commits until they die) then the Times SHOULDN’T HAVE WRITTEN THE STORY!!!! They are basing an entire story on patched together, guessed upon numbers that even they admit are likely not right! Yet they still threw together a story, AND they omitted the statistics that ARE available, the DoJ statistics on homicide and the general population. They did not report those numbers, they did not make an attempt to adjust those numbers for a majority male population, they did not CARE about those numbers, and you have to ask yourself why. You keep believing that the Times really has the best interests of these veterans at heart. You are deluding yourself. They see a Pulitzer in “exposing” this wave of murders and they are going to pad their stats however they can (keep in people who are acquitted, add people who are only now accused, throw in the vehicular manslaughter whether it has anything to do with this issue or not) and they are going to ignore any stats that might soften the story. The truth is they have no more idea how many homicides were committed before 2001 by veterans than you or I do. Their research is shoddy and superficial — and THEY DON’T CARE. Because once they put this story out, the damage is done — it will be spread all over and become the latest meme against the war, the vets, the military, the Bush administration. All I ask is that they either do complete research and come armed with genuine statistics, or else the forego writing the article at all. They did not, and they are wrong.
