In an attempt to downplay the deteriorating security situation in
Iraq, the right wing is claiming that the violent death rates in
Washington, DC, are higher than those in
Iraq.
From NewsMax:
Despite media coverage purporting to show that escalating violence in
Iraq has the country spiraling out of control, civilian death statistics complied by Rep. Steve King, R-IA, indicate that
Iraq actually has a lower civilian violent death rate than
Washington, D.C.
[...]Using Pentagon statistics cross-checked with independent research, King said he came up with an annualized Iraqi civilian death rate of 27.51 per 100,000.
Rep. King’s “report” is increasingly gaining circulation among right wing circles, being featured in the
New York Sun and on the Rush Limbaugh show.
The report is obviously deceptive and false. ThinkProgress tells us why:
1) The King report uses 2002 data for Washington, D.C., finding a violent casualty rate of 45.9 deaths per 100,000 people. That number is badly outdated. Using the most recent 2004 data, the violent casualty rate in D.C. is 35.8 deaths per 100,000. There were 198 homicides total in D.C. for the entire year.
2) According to Pentagon’s own data released today, there have been 94 violent casualties per day in
Iraq between February and May of 2006. (see p.33). That translates into 34,310 deaths per year in
Iraq. For an Iraqi population of about 26.7 million, plus another 150,000 coalition forces, the violent casualty rate in
Iraq is 128 deaths per 100,000.3) Lastly, the King report is trying to conflate the data for one urban area in the
U.S. with the entire country of
Iraq. As OpinionJournal writes, “The comparison with
U.S. cities poses a problem of scale. Just as some municipalities here have high concentrations of crime,
Baghdad and some other Iraqi cities have high concentrations of military, guerrilla and terrorist activity. A comparison of
Baghdad with
Los Angeles or a similarly sprawling
U.S. city would be more enlightening than a comparison of
Iraq as a whole with cities of well under a million people.”
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Is the number on Iraq taking into account Insurgents into the death toll as well? Because that would change the matter. DC is a crime ridden city but I doubt it can exceed Iraq.