Why Does The Left Hate America's Vets?

Watch CNN or read the New York Times for a week, and you'll conclude that America's military veterans are the most screwed up, dangerous and demoralized members of American society. This fits the post-Vietnam "Rambo" storyline of the Left, who believe service in combat turns our soldiers into drug-addled psychopaths--a conclusion, by the way, that the vast majority of combat veterans of WWII, Korea and every other war utterly reject.

So it was no surprise when this Sunday's New York Times featured a front-page story "reporting" that service in Iraq has turned our soldiers to murderers. The story, "Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreigh Battles, claims they 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."

Quoting advocates for more government spending and opponents of America's Iraq policy, the writers imply that they've uncovered a killing spree caused by the US military and inflicted upon us by our veterans.

Really?

Here's the Natural Truth, as reported by John J. DiIulio Jr. :

Assuming 121 homicide cases in relation to 749,932 total discharges through 2007, 99.98 percent of all discharged Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have not committed or been charged with homicide.

And assuming 121 cases and 749,932 total discharges, the homicide offending rate for the discharged veterans would be 16.1 per 100,000. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has demographic data aplenty on homicide offending rates. For instance, in 2005, for white males aged 18-24, the rate was about 20 per 100,000.

In other words, given the available data, it's just as likely that combat veterans are LESS violent than their civilian counterparts as it is they are more violent. The entire premise of the story is essentially false.

So why run it? Because the New York Times, like every other self-loathing, lefty, Baby-Boomer dominated media outlet, never met an American soldier they didn't dislike.