A state of emergency was declared in Baghdad today. This comes right after GOP Congressman Steve King (R-IA) went on TV yesterday and claimed that Iraq is actually MUCH SAFER than the US.
So, I googled Mr. King and found the following speech on his Web site from a few weeks ago (clearly, this is his standard stump speech):
I would point out that there is a way also to draw a measure, a measure that Americans will have a different feel for when I lay out the casualty rates for violent deaths in our cities in America. And it occurs to me when I look at these statistics that it is far more dangerous for my wife to live here in Washington, D.C. than it would be if she were living as an Iraqi civilian citizen in a random place in Iraq.... It is getting a little safer in Detroit than it is in Washington, D.C., but still far more dangerous in Detroit than it is in Iraq to be a civilian. [He goes on to claim that Iraq is safer than Baltimore, Atlanta and St. Louis.]First off, send your wife to Iraq, please. And see if she survives. Hell, see if she'd even go. And have her bring the King's new granchild with her, since it's obviously safer in Iraq than America, you'd actually be HELPING your newborn grandchild by bringing them on the trip.
But make sure you also bring your dramamine. I hear those 50,000 feet spirals you have to do all the way down to the Baghdad airport, in order to avoid the surface to air missiles, are a bitch on the stomach. And don't forget the 25 pounds of body armor you need to wear from the airport to the embassy living quarters. I'm not sure it comes in baby sizes.
