I read an article the other day that talk about the fact that the US military has used over 1.8 billion rounds of small caliber ammunition in Iraq. It seems that domestic industry can’t keep up with demand and the US is turning to overseas suppliers. The article talked about the hollowing out of American industry and its threat to national security. OK, but one thing really jumped out at me.

1.8 billion freaking rounds!

Let’s look at this number a minute. US Army spokesmen estimate that there are 20,000 insurgents in Iraq. It’s harder to say how many insurgents have been killed. All sides play with these numbers far too much. So let’s say that 5,000 actual insurgents have been killed by the US military. How many of those were killed with small arms rather than bombs, artillery or missiles? I have no idea, so lets split the difference and say half or 2,500. This means it takes 720,000 rounds of ammunition to kill a single insurgent.

Looked at another way, since the standard 5.56 NATO round weighs 15.12 grams US forces have fired off more than 30,000 tons of small arms ammo, and it takes more than 12 tons of ammunition to bring down an insurgent. When we look at just the projectile weight — the part of the round that actually flys (presumably) in the direction of the target — it takes about three tons of flying metal to send an insurgent to meet his maker.

With the exception of Afghanistan, every nation on the planet whose names starts with an A also ends with an A. The rule holds true for the seven continents and all 50 states in the US with the exception of Arkansas. If I had a bit more time on my hands, I could probably wrap a neat little conspiracy theory around this, but I’m not feeling particularly creative or motivated today.

My new passport arrived recently. The visa pages have a watermark showing various state seals. Interestingly they altered the Great Seal of Virginia so it reads “The State of Virginia.”

You would think the US Department of State would know that Virginia is not a State but a Commonwealth.

This is astounding coverage of Hurricane Katrina from National Geographic. The amazing thing is, it was written last year.

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

You know, I am not an emotional guy. I can even be a bit of an asshole at times. But I’m frustrated almost to the point of tears not only over what is happening (and not happening) to the people of New Orleans, but over what US the media are saying about it.

Flipping back and forth between American news sources like CNN and Fox and international ones like the BBC reminds me of watching the news in China. Yes, it’s almost that bad at times. The US news tells a tale of unexpected disaster that could not have been prevented and and uncaring world, and the foreign press tells a story of gross bureaucratic incompetence and a nation refusing all outside help.

A few random facts about international aid.

A few days ago the Dutch (who know a thing or two about repairing levees) sent a ship full of food, medicine and rescue and repair specialists to the Gulf. A politician (the president?) was on TV saying that while America had not actually accepted their offer of aid yet, they wanted to be in position in case the US finally accepts. (Thank you!) Even Cuba offered to send doctors and/or water and supplies, but they are not being allowed to. At last count, over 70 nations have offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, but very little of this aid is being accepted by the the federal government.

And it’s not just the international aid that’s being turned away. The mayor of Chicago offered to send rescue personal and was refused. The Red Cross has tucks full of supplies that FEMA will not let them deliver. The Mayor of New Orleans was on (foreign) TV the other night, saying that things are getting worse and that what the federal government and US media are saying is a “line of bull.” I can’t help but wonder how much widespread notice his statements received in the US.

The Independent (an English newspaper) ran an analysis of what went wrong, and they came to the conclusion that the disaster probably could have been avoided. I will not get into the details here, but the two main points were organization and funding. FEMA used to be an independent agency tasked with providing emergency relief, but after 911, Bush placed it under the authority of Homeland Security, changed its mission and reduced its funding.

The second problem was overall funding. Over the last four years federal funding for flood prevention and levee repair in New Orleans was cut almost in half. And last year — for the first time in 37 years — work on strengthening levees was halted due to lack of funds.

Katrina was a tragedy, but far more lives have been lost and continue to be lost due to criminal levels of incompetence than due to the storm itself. Its hard to explain how infuriating it is to switch between US and non-US news sources and see what a different story each is telling.

Most of this terrible loss of life is due to human incompetence and could have been prevented, but I don’t think anyone will ever be held accountable.