Iraq: Half as Safe as Detroit

A Republican congressman is taking some heat over his remarks comparing the situation in Iraq to the situation in Detroit:

A Republican congressman representing rural southern Michigan is taking heat for saying that most of Iraq is at least as under control as Detroit is.

Freshman Rep. Tim Walberg's comments, made Monday on WILS-AM in Lansing, didn't sit well with Democrats -- who issued a news release Wednesday -- or the office of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

"Any reference to Detroit as a war zone is absurd," said Matt Allen, the mayor's spokesman.

Walberg of Tipton didn't quite say Detroit was a war zone. He said most of Iraq "is reasonably under control, at least as well as Detroit."

Walberg's spokesman, Matt Lahr, said the congressman "frequently shares sentiments expressed to him by the soldiers and veterans he meets." He wouldn't say whether a soldier or soldiers made the Detroit remark.

There have been 3,223 U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the war began in 2003, and more than 10,000 Iraqi civilian and security forces killed since January 2006, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. About 1,576 people died as a result of homicide or nonnegligent manslaughter in Detroit since the beginning of 2003.

If you back out the number of U.S. miltary casualties as a result of operational accidents, the numbers look even worse...for Detroit. It's clear that police in Detroit need to step up and take control of their city or we'll have to cut-and-run and pull our forces out of that beleaguered area before any more of our boys get hurt.