There is a cycle of stories/myths that the GOP circulates, such as the re-visited WWII comparisons that are now waning again. Don't worry, that one will surely come back just as it has before. One of the other great myths about Iraq is that it's not all that dangerous, that the violence is actually below the rates in many US cities. All too often, the spin-meisters try to take one number from Iraq and then compare it to a US city or especially bad neighborhood, i.e. compare apples to oranges.
I just might be wrong on this, but I am not sure that any US city has experienced 334 murders in one week. More than 300 murders per year would be considered a very dangerous city in the US.
At least 334 people, including 23 women, were killed in Baghdad from Aug. 27 through Saturday, according to morgue figures provided by Health Ministry officials. Most of the victims had been kidnapped, tortured, hog-tied and shot.At least 394 other people were killed around Iraq last week in other violence, including bombings, mortar attacks and gunfights, Iraqi authorities said.
The rise in violence followed an announcement by U.S. and Iraqi officials at the beginning of the week that the number of killings in the capital had fallen drastically during August, from more than 1,800 in July. Although August as a whole was less violent than the month before, last week's killings suggested that death squads are still able to roam around Baghdad despite checkpoints and curfews.
