The Math is wrong. Someone has divided by 22 months and given the monthly rate for deaths in Iraq
So 720 per 100 000 per year is correct, not 60
The wag who started this thing compared the war MONTHLY average with the Washington highest annual total for 1991 (see below)
So the death rate in Iraq among armed armoured Americans is about 20 times the homicide rate for all (mostly unarmed unprotected) citizens in washington.(35.4 per 100,000 for 2005) I feel sorry for the people of Washington too.
About 65 000 Iraqi citizens have been killed.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

there have been over 3000 deaths in Iraq of americans since Mar 03
http://icasualties.org/oif/US_chart.aspx
and over 24000 wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

> > > -Begin Quote-
> > > There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths. That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers. The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.
> > > Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington
> > > -End Quote-
> > >
> > > I found this in someone's blog and copied it. My apologies for any misspellings and/or inaccurate statistics. Nevertheless, I thought it was funny.
> > >
> > > Michael
> >
> > I checked up on some of this. The "80.6 per 100,000" for Washington, D.C. was actually the rate in 1991, the peak year. The numbers are 44.7 per 100,000 for 2003; 35.8 per 100,000 for 2004; 35.4 per 100,000 for 2005. Also, these are homicide rates, which are a bit over the firearm death rates because it includes stabbings, etc.
> >
> > So, right from the start, it's based on a blatant lie (I realize this has nothing to do with Michael -- I'm addressing whoever originally wrote it). Also, the choice of "firearm death rate" over "homicide" is telling. Perhaps that further helps unbalance the scales. Not to mention that, even disregarding the bad statistics, it should read "...more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq, *if you are an American*." Would we really base the decision to pull out just on how many of *us* are dying?