Fighting Insurgents in the 'Hood - Iraq to Chicago

Bruce Thompson compares death numbers in Iraq to murders in Chicago.

As mentioned in my previous post, Annie Sweeney of the Chicago Sun-Times has written some excellent articles recently. First, she did a series of three articles from Iraq. Then came her article on Chicago’s declining murder rate. In each are insights that support my thesis that fighting the Iraqi insurgency is akin to fighting violent street gangs in Chicago. I arrived at this conclusion during all the lamentations about the loss of 1000 Americans in Iraq. My initial insight was that the number of Americans killed by hostile action in Iraq was quite close to the number of Americans murdered in Chicago during the same period. Ms. Sweeney is projecting 418 murders in 2004 with one month to go. The figure from 2003 was 599 murders. So over the period of 2003-2004 we project 1017 murders in Chicago. The current count from Iraq is 1098 and counting. So if it is fair to put pressure on President Bush to suppress the insurgency in Iraq, it is also fair to put pressure on Mayor Daley to suppress the street gangs in Chicago. The good news is both men are succeeding!

And that is just Chicago!
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