NY Times forced to correct another leftwing myth

African Americans often did supply a disproportionate number of combat troops, a high percentage of whom had voluntarily enlisted. Although they made up less than 10 percent of American men in arms and about 13 percent of the U.S. population between 1961 and 1966, they accounted for almost 20 percent of all combat-related deaths in Vietnam during that period. In 1965 alone African Americans represented almost one-fourth of the Army's killed in action. In 1968 African Americans, who made up roughly 12 percent of Army and Marine total strengths, frequently contributed half the men in front-line combat units, especially in rifle squads and fire teams.

Source: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/Maps/poets/s_z/stevens/africanamer.htm

I appreciate the fact that you pointed out this correction. However, what makes it a left wing myth? It is a left wing myth because it involves minorities? If the statistics were right, would you be appalled? Once again, on newsvine, I am extremely confused how the subject relates to the seeded link.

Did you actually read the article before writing your headline? From the original article:

"Critics also say that Latinos often wind up as cannon fodder on the casualty-prone front lines. African-Americans saw the same thing happen during the 1970's and 1980's, an accusation that still reverberates. "

All that I see here is an effort to ensure factual reporting.

I dunno. "Leftwing Myth" still seems like an unnecessarily partisan generalization. I note, too, your bias against the NYT. "Forced" implies that the NYT would never have printed "truth" without outside pressure.

This fetishism of the Times is pretty common among rightwingers: "You can't trust them! The Media hates Republicans. The NYT is the most influential newspaper. Therefore, the Times hates Republicans the most."

How Bush and Cheney must've guffawed over leaking all that classified info to Judy Miller....

misleading statistics.. the left is still right. and so is the right in a way
true african americans accounted for 12.5% of the deaths
true african americans were 13% of the population
But due to racial bias at the time they were only 10%
of the armed forces serving in vietnam..
so while african americans as a race were not disproportionately killed more
african americans in the military were. More likely to serve dangerous missions or be at the front line.

Wow, our most important myth - SHATTERED!
Now, get to work on debunking the illegality of wiretapping, the failure of this war, the poverty rate, the tripling of world-wide terrorism....you know, our smaller myth. It shouldn't be that hard to do!

The headline is nonsense but to correct it I'd say Poor People get killed more than the Rich in modern wars. Ever since Napoleon started the citizen army the rich weasel out and the poor fight. We should adopt that sci-fi idea that citizenship and national service are linked.

You know, I think this seed could use some rewriting to make it more prone to causing political flamewars. Maybe "The New York Times, a well-known America-hating smear rag which desires the victory of the terrorists and wants President Bush and our troops to die horribly and be forced to watch ultra-explicit cuts of Brokeback Mountain for all eternity in Hell, forced to retract vicious, blatant lies which had been published by gay communist liberal secular-humanistic atheists with the sole intent of promoting an anti-American, anti-military, pro-terrorist homosexual agenda of Darwinian evolution."

It flows a bit better like that, don't you think?

Or maybe I'll choose to have my Sunday-morning coffee with cream and sugar, but no bile.

Bravo, James. May I suggest adding "global-warming wackos"?