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Originally Posted by Bebe
You know, thousands of Americans have died in Iraq since the war started.
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And 150,000 Iraqis as a result of the conflict, many of them non-combatant civilians. Iraq lost more civilians in the original 2003 US invasion of Iraq, than died in the 9/11 attacks, which Iraq had nothing to do with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bebe
People die senselessly ALL THE TIME. Genocide is committed all over the world all the time. More children die of malnourishment or dysentery than this every day. Why are these 4000-ish people so special?
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Good question.
If you are outside of the US keep this in mind: Only half of us vote and only half of the voters, vote for the Republican party. When we elect our commander-in-chief, it isn't a popular vote, it is determined by the electoral college. In the electoral college, every state is given votes based on congress and senate seats (the senate thing gives less-populated states greater voting power). When a state goes 53% for Bush and 47% for Kerry, Bush gets 100% of the electors for that state. If a state contest isn't considered competitive most people won't vote. Almost no one votes for offices beyond the president and congressmen because there is almost no media coverage of smaller more regional races.
In a nutshell, half of the voters in the US feel like their vote doesn't matter because they live in a state with a majority of one party or the other. I think lots of Americans care about the humanitarian foreign issues, they just don't have enough faith in our system to go out and give their feelings a voice.