[Retain Mike]

I knew my wife and I were on the right track praying fervently for our son, while he was stationed in Washington D.C. with Marine Presidential Securty forces. At the 8th and I Streets Marine base (est. 1801) my son, while on duty regularly heard small arms fire nearby, because it was adjacent a really bad neighborhood. He also survived riding a Kawasaki 750cc motorcycle. Now he is scheduled to deploy with 3/4 Marines, probably as one of those "Strategic Corporals" General Krulak referred to in discussing the "Three Block War". Rush is commenting on a New York Sun article, and I hope a subscriber reads the thread and post the article in its entirety.

[expatpat]

I think King may have got the numbers wrong. I heard that the rate in Iraq was 56 per 100,000, not 26.

[LWalk18]

85% of those murdered in Baltimore are criminals. If you not involved in the drug trade or scene, your chance of being murdered goes down dramatically. If 85% of those represented by the Iraqi death rate are terrorists or criminals then you have a point. But if not, you could certainly argue that you have a better chance of being an innocent victim of violence in Iraq than in Baltimore or another city.

[traviskicks]

Q: (Inaudible.)

Rumsfeld: I did that once [said DC has a higher murder rate then Baghdad], and I was advised that it wasn’t the best idea. But there are hundreds of homicides in most major cities in the world without getting particular.

[anglian]

During the Clinton years, the US military lost an average of 939soldiers each year. During the War in Iraq the US has lost an average of 800 soldiers each year- down each of the last two years! These results were taken from Iraq Coalition Casualties, and Murdoc Online - the Official Department of Defense Report. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/12/grim-milestones-missed-by-media-today.html

[syriacus]

Whose safety are we talking about?

The safety of the Iraqi people? The safety of visitors?

I know Iraq is a lot safer for our troops than Korea was. And Iraq has been a lot safer for Iraqis than Korea was for Koreans (1.6 million Korean civilians died during Truman's Korean War)

Here's a table showing military deaths for 45 months of war in Iraq and in Korea.

Column 1 - US deaths each month, from war's beginning in Iraq
Column 2 - US deaths each month, from war's beginning in Korea
Column 3 - running totals of monthly deaths (each month + all the previous months) in Iraq
Column 4 - running totals of monthly deaths (each month + all the previous months) in Korea
Column 5 - semiannual totals of deaths in Iraq
Column 6 - semiannual totals of deaths in Korea
Column 7 - yearly totals Iraq
Column 8 - yearly totals Korea.

65	2,849	running tot I	running tot K	SemiA I	SemiA K	each year I	each year K
73	1,754	138	4603
37	3,345	175	7,948
30	386	205	8,334
47	3,475	252	11,809
35	2,154	287	13,963	287	13,963
30	657	317	14,620
43	2,068	360	16,688
82	886	442	17,574
40	1,072	482	18,646
47	1,161	529	19,807
19	806	548	20,613	261	6,650	548	20,613
52	314	600	20,927
147	504	747	21,431
88	1,394	835	22,825
44	1,659	879	24,484
61	531	940	25,015
71	221	1,011	25,236	463	4,623
84	206	1,095	25,442
68	147	1,163	25,589
140	175	1,303	25,764
73	226	1,376	25,990
108	201	1,484	26,191
62	484	1,546	26,675	535	1,439	998	6,062
36	450	1,582	27,125
52	412	1,634	27,537
82	619	1,716	28,156
77	1,017	1,793	29,173
55	302	1,848	29,475
85	197	1,933	29,672	387	2,997
54	173	1,987	29,845
96	243	2,083	30,088
88	541	2,171	30,629
67	310	2,238	30,939
65	199	2,303	31,138
56	471	2,359	31,609	426	1,937	813	4,934
33	1,006	2,392	32,615
81	7	2,473	32,622
71	5	2,544	32,627
61	63	2,605	32,690
51	52	2,656	32,742
70	360	2,726	33,102	367	1,493
76	131	2,802	33,233
108	129	2,910	33,362
76	83	2,986	33,445
	30		33,475

[Albion Wilde]

I knew my wife and I were on the right track praying fervently for our son, while he was stationed in Washington D.C. with Marine Presidential Securty forces. At the 8th and I Streets Marine base (est. 1801)...

I take it he was near the Naval base in SouthEast DC? There is a DC custom of always naming the quadrant of the city in the address (NW, NE, SE, SW) because many of the same intersection names occur in all four quadrants.

DC was redlined by real estate agents soon after the Civil Rights act was passed in 1964 and blacks began streaming into DC to take civil service jobs. Unfortunately, this forced poor blacks into NE and SE neighborhoods, causing "white flight" into NW neighborhoods (SW contains few residences), or out to the suburbs, instead of integration. The result was some entrenched pockets of poverty and inter-generational poverty culture.