The article doesn't pass the laugh test. In New Orleans, police patrol in unarmored sedans armed with nothing more than a .38 or 9MM and a shotgun. In Iraq, American soldiers patrol in full combat dress, supported by Bradley Fighting Vehicles or armored Humvees, crew-served SAWs, M16s, Apache gunships and fixed-wing air support, artillery and tanks on call. If Sadr City, Anwar Province, and the roads to Kuwait and Camp Victory were truly safer than New Orleans, you'd have cops patrolling and our troops would be home. Instead we have 150,000 troops in country with reporter another 40-50K about to be called in.
Quite right. Another matter is, to put it a bit harshly, the "quality" of the murder victims. Knock out deaths of gang members and drug deals gone bad and even the New Orleans numbers will be cut in half. It's a very small number of people in New Orleans who personally know somebody who was killed on their way out of a grocery store.