Fuzzy Math

Three years ago, Fox News anchor Brit Hume said Iraq was safer than California because less Americans died in a certain period in Iraq than in the Golden State, and both are roughly the same size. Of course, there were 30 million-plus Americans in California and 130,000 in Iraq at the time, but who's counting.

Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa must have gone to The Brit Hume School for Advanced Mathematics:

27.51 Iraqis per 100,000 die a violent death on an annual basis. 27.51. Now what does that mean? To me, it really doesn’t mean a lot until I compare it to people that I know or have a feel for the rhythm of this place. Well I by now have a feel for the rhythm of this place called Washington, D.C., and my wife lives here with me, and I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, she’s at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq. 45 out of every 100,000 Washington, D.C. regular residents die a violent death on an annual basis.

First of all, the figures are wrong. DC's casualty rates are lower, more like 35 per 100,000. Second, King uses the stats for ALL of Iraq (including the semi-autonomous and relatively quiet north) and compares them to the stats of one poor urban area. If we use the only city of comparable size in Iraq, Baghdad, we'd see that the murder rate there is 95 per 100,000. And that seems low considering there were 6,000 violent deaths in Baghdad already this year as of the end of May.

For some reason, the President manages to fly into Washington DC with the landing on every public schedule released everywhere, yet can't tell a soul that he's showing up in Baghdad, including the Prime Minister, who didn't know until 5 minutes before their meeting. Guess Mr. Bush needs a math course from Mr. King, it'd save him a lot of trouble and worry and secret scheduling. He could fly Delta!