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posted by janrinok on Monday June 22 2015, @08:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the that-much?? dept.

The Washington Post reports

A simple data point offered by a college commencement speaker jumped out at [non-employee Washington Post contributor Philip Bump] before being borne away on the tide of immediacy.

[...]The speaker was ABC journalist Martha Raddatz, and the point is [...]: The graduates have spent half their lives with America at war.

It's a startling idea, but an incorrect one. The percentage is almost certainly much higher than that.

Using somewhat subjective definitions of "at war"--Korea counts but Kosovo doesn't in our analysis, for example--we endeavored to figure out how much of each person's life has been spent with America at war. We used whole years for both the age and the war, so the brief Gulf War is given a full year, and World War II includes 1941. These are estimates.

The page contains a graphic that allows you to see what portion of your lifetime the USA has been formally engaged in hostilities according to your birth year.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Monday June 22 2015, @09:58PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 22 2015, @09:58PM (#199615)

    As one of our former leaders said, that's just a piece of paper.

    We no longer operate under rule of law, we operate as a rogue nation.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @12:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @12:34AM (#199667)

    Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time...

    -- gewg_

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @03:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @03:20AM (#199711)

      That is all.

      -- gewg_

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 23 2015, @01:41PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday June 23 2015, @01:41PM (#199873) Journal

    We no longer operate under rule of law, we operate as a rogue nation.

    Yes, sometime in the last 40 years the country was taken in a secret coup d'etat, and is now being looted by a very organized criminal gang. They're even spying on us in our very homes. It's the perfect crime, the most perfect in history. Even the victims don't yet realize they're victims.

    Washington DC delenda est.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.