Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Iraq Safer than D.C.?

A friend who normally sends politically incorrect jokes through email sent this as a joke?

Subject: Sobering Statistic

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the
U.S. involvement in Iraq, here's a sobering statistic:

There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops
in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22
months, and a total of 2,112 deaths. That gives a
firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6
per 100,000 persons for the same period.

That means that you are about 25% more likely to be
shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington.


This from a smart guy, right leaning, ok but this was insulting my intelligence. Maybe Fox News would put something out like this but does anyone really these statistics are relevant?

I referred him to this site icasualties.org for a casual read.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 13 when it exploded in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA NEAR - Police found 15 men shot, bound and blindfolded, in a deserted building on Monday in a town near Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Colonel Jubair al-Dulaimi said.

BAQUBA - The Iraqi army found 10 bodies in a village northwest of Baquba. Dr Ahmed Faoud at Baquba hospital said the bodies all appeared to have been shot and were decomposed.

Are these people not human beings with mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters?

What is it that I'm not understanding about this?

How many U.S. and Iraqi wounded?