April 30, 2004

Playing the Hispanic Card
Posted by Jon Henke

At the DNC Blog...

Many low-income young Hispanics are looking at the army as a place where they acquire skills and an education. However, according to a 2003 Pew Hispanic Center report, two thirds of Hispanics are concentrated among the youngest, most junior segment of the officer corps in the armed forces. The report also found that Hispanics are over represented among enlisted personnel who most directly handle weapons. This means that Hispanics are not just predominantly in lower ranks, but also more at risk of being in the line of fire than other ethnic groups.

During the early part of the war, 22 Hispanic soldiers died and 61 were wounded. Since Bush declared his "mission accomplished," 50 more have died, and 197 have been wounded.[emphasis added]

Hm. Racism? Hispanics being used as "cannon fodder"? Hispanics bearing an undue share of the burden?

Hardly.

Taking their numbers, we have a total of 72 deaths among Hispanic soldiers....out of a total of 734 US Casualties. Rounding up, that means Hispanics account for 10% of US troop fatalities.

Per the US Census Bureau (pdf), the Hispanic population accounts for 13.3% of the US population.

Just a suggestion.....maybe you should check the numbers before you throw out the race card next time, hm?

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Comments

That's very similar to the nonsense that said blacks were dying in disproporionate numbers in Vietnam. When the numbers were checked, it was found that blacks were dying in almost exact proportion to their percentage of the population.

Posted by: McQ at April 30, 2004 02:30 PM