New: Baghdad Alone Has More Murders Than The Entire US!

[MannyGoldstein]

I just read that there were 16,912 murders in the US in all of 2005.

Baghdad alone had 1,398 murders last month, not including soldiers or civilian victims of explosions. Extrapolating that to a full 12 months, this comes to 16,776 per year. Add only 12 or more soldiers and civilian explosion victims a month (the number is certainly much higher than 12), and Baghdad's number of murders passes the entire US.

Baghdad, a city of 6 million people, now has more murders than our entire 300-million-person country.

Why haven't we seen this in the media?

The next time some deluded soul repeats the lie that Iraq is safer than the US, or safer than some city in the US, tell'em this statistic.

[marmar]

1. And I heard some Repug idiot assert that Iraq was safer than D.C. ....

I wish we could send them all over for some first-hand observations.

[acmavm]

7. That's the very exact argument I had with one of the big

shots here where I work a couple of weeks ago. I was furious. And no matter how I tried to show him the stupidity of his 'logic' and figures, the more he dug in. He would hesitate and try to find a way out but couldn't so finally he got mad and said "I'm not going to convince you and you're never going to convince me, so let's forget it" and stormed off.

[skooooo]

2. Who was it who said...

...that people in California were more at risk for violent crime than the Marines in Iraq a few years ago? Some idiot on Fox I think...

[progdonkey]

4. Brit Hume...

aka "Some idiot on Fox" ;)

[Journeyman]

3. I like to use this analogy with those deluded souls. . .

Iraq is approximately the same geographic size as California, has roughly the same population (25 million), and about the same number of foreign troops as California has law enforcement (~150,000). For the past three years, the foreign occupation troops have functioned as the law within Iraq.

You have to ask yourself, would anyone in this country be complacent if -- on average -- 2.3 policemen were being killed in California every day? If 2600 police officers had been killed in California in the past three years, would anyone feel this was anything less than total anarchy? Would any pundit scoff and compare California to, say, Darfur, and conclude that the situation's acceptable because it could be much worse?

And this doesn't begin to include the civilian toll. Who believes that carbombs and IEDs, dozens of citizens dead in the streets on a regular basis, thousands kidnapped and hundreds assassinated, beheadings, churches bombed and clergy hacked to death with machetes, undrinkable water, people freezing to death in the dark . . . who believes such a total disintegration of civilized society in the most populous State of the Union would warrant a shrug or a smirk or a dismissive wave of the hand? Who would send snarky emails about such Left Coast chaos? And how long would a politician -- any politician in any state or at any level -- how long would they last in office if they made smug and condescending comments about how well the true situation is in California? How obscene would observations about school paintjobs be in such a crisis?


And thanks for your stats, Manny . . . maybe some day reason will again prevail in the States.

[bluerum]

5. Since when is 16,776 greater than 16,912?

But I do see the point you are trying to make.

The carnage, death and suffering that the average Iraqi has endured during the last 3 years must be unbearable. Do they see the US presence as the cause of it? By now I suspect many do.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. 16,776 Does Not Include All Murders

The Iraq figures do not include any civilians killed by bombs (car bombs, IEDs) or military who are killed. If only (!) one person is killed in a car bombing every other day, the addition brings Iraqs total higher than ours.

[MADem]

6. But....but.....but!!!!!!!!!!!

Look on the BRIGHT SIDE!!!!!!!!! We're trying like HELL to keep up!!!!!!!

Violent Crime Up for 1st Time in 5 Years

Murders, robberies and aggravated assaults in the United States increased last year, spurring an overall rise in violent crime for the first time since 2001, according to FBI data.

Murders rose 4.8 percent, meaning there were more than 16,900 victims in 2005. That would be the most since 1998 and the largest percentage increase in 15 years. .....


Criminal justice experts said the statistics reflect the nation's complacency in fighting crime, a product of dramatic declines in the 1990s and the abandonment of effective programs that emphasized prevention, putting more police officers on the street and controlling the spread of guns....Crime last year increased in all regions, although the 5.7 percent rise in the Midwest was at least three times any other region's. These states make up the Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. ...

http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/06/12/ap2809563.html

[MannyGoldstein]

10. This Was The Number I Used

[benEzra]

11. Gun laws haven't changed significantly...

unless the murders in question were committed with bayonets, gun laws are now pretty much as they were eight or ten years ago.

[zbdent]

8. Plus, point out (as I always do) that to be truly comparable, you would

have to look at the murders of POLICE personnel in the US, instead of just plain murders . . . since we're over there acting as "the police" . . . then the murder rate in Baghdad is much more serious than the US . . .