Comments on: Couple of Iraqi election links

By: Corey

Corey — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 01:44:26 +0000

of course in the north where the kurds are, no trouble was even expected. the same goes for the solidly shi’ite areas in the south. so its even a bit of a stretch to be saying 35 out of 25 mil. wouldn’t it be more fair to put up a 35 out of (# of people that actually voted in the high risk areas)? just my thought.

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 22:05:14 +0000

The thing that struck my mind was that the drunk driver number was a daily number. How many times a year do you vote? How many times a year do you drive?

Of course, comparing national statistics can be rather meaningless. I bet it was a lot safer in certain parts of Iraq to vote than others. Population density and other demographics certainly changes the drunken driver statistics across the country, not to mention the fact that if I do all of my driving from 8:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. I’m a lot more likely to get into an accident with a drunken driver, even though I don’t drink myself.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:48:10 +0000

Population of Iraq: 25,374,691 (source: http://worldfacts.us/Iraq.htm)

Number of licensed drivers in the United States: 196.7 million (source: http://www.iii.org/media/facts/statsbyissue/highway/?table_sort_735921=3)

When you use those figures to come up with a “probability of being killed during this activity” kind of number for each, voting in Iraq is still apparently much more dangerous. I think I understand what Paul Boutin was getting at, but if he’s going to use numbers, he should compare apples to apples.