"Wonder what the murder toll in cities like Detroit and DC is for 2005 so far?"
A lot less than the murder toll in Baghdad no doubt. A better analogy would be comparing Iraq casualties with police deaths in the afore-mentioned Detroit and DC.
Wouldn't know. I haven't hung around stateside much in quite a while.
I believe most people get my point. It has to do with reporting.
A more fitting comparison would be how many deaths to accomplish this mission as compared to how many to accomplish similar missions in the past.
Except that nobody has ever accomplished this particular mission before. To call the feat of defeating and stabilizing a country as large and backward as Iraq anything other than a triumph is ludicrous.