Mother Jones is one of the best magazines around. They do an excellent job of reporting stories that no one else does and there are always several eye-opening stats in each issue. In addition to Eric Klinenberg's great article on the way that investors, greed and the FCC (and not the Internet!) are killing newspapers, there's an amazing report on Iraq. If you take a look at MJ's source page, you'll see the intensive and impressive research that went into compiling this story. It explains basics (like the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite); but it also goes deeper and reports statistics that I haven't seen anywhere else. Some examples:* The family of a U.S. private killed in action can receive $500,000 plus $40,000 annually. The family of an Iraqi who is killed will receive no more than $2,500 from the U.S. government.
* Of the 323,000 members of Iraq's security forces, only 10,000 are "politically dependable." American trainers report that 70 percent of the police force has been infiltrated by militias.
* The war cost American taxpayers $1.9 billion a week, or $275 million a day. If the U.S. had not invaded, militarily containing Saddam through 2015 would have cost an estimated $23 million a day.
* In 2006, 30 percent of Iraqi children went to school. Before the war, attendance was close to 100 percent.
* Twenty-two Army soldiers committed suicide in Iraq in 2005, twice the number from 2004.
There are tons of other statistics worth reading and mulling over, so I hope you'll check out the article.
Iraq 101
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