Questions about the comparison of DC homicides to Iraqi casualties.

[brainshrub]

One of the more insipid reasons to stay in Iraq I've heard recently is: "More people have been murdered in Washington DC than American soldiers killed in Iraq since we have been there. Should we cut and run from DC, too?"

Well, The Number of Murders in DC for 2003 was 262 homicides. (Breaking down to approximately 45.8 murders per 100,000 residents.) The population of DC is approximately 5 million people.

Here are my questions:

1) How many troops are in Iraq right now?

2) If all the troops in Iraq were a city...what would the murder-rate be per 100,000? How do you calculate that? (FYI: According to my sources, the US casualty count is about 699 as of today.)


My sources:

www.theeagleonline.com/news/2003/11/17/News/D.c-A.Killer.Town-559606.shtml

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=273137

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

Thanks for your help, information, links and comments.

[kiahzero]

1. It's a false comparison.

"More people have been murdered in Washington DC than American soldiers killed in Iraq since we have been there. Should we cut and run from DC, too?"

Valid analogy would be "More police hav been murdered in Washington DC than American soldiers killed in Iraq since we have been there. ..."

Do you have statistics on police deaths?

[brainshrub]

3. No, but I will look for them now.

[DCDemo]

2. No..the pop of DC is around 530k

DC Metro area, 5 mil sure, but a lot more murders than just for DC which is what you cited.