Monday, October 30, 2006

Iraq versus California

A piece by Victor Davis Hanson is making the rounds today, in spite of being written back in April. If you haven't read it, it will probably knock your socks off. Here is a taste.
War-torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million....

As a fifth-generation Californian, I deeply love this state, but still imagine what the reaction would be if the world awoke each morning to be told that once again there were six more murders, 27 rapes, 38 arsons, 180 robberies, and 360 instances of assault in California — yesterday, today, tomorrow, and every day. I wonder if the headlines would scream about “Nearly 200 poor Californians butchered again this month!”How about a monthly media dose of “600 women raped in February alone!” Or try, “Over 600 violent robberies and assaults in March, with no end in sight!”

1 comment:

Frank Staheli said...

As a general rule, Iraqis go about their daily business much like we do, just not on such a economically high level, because of the oppression of the Hussein years. It's very probably more dangerous to live in certain sections of Detroit, St. Louis, or Camden, New Jersey than in most parts of Iraq.

Hanson did a masterful job of illustrating the comparative crime statistics.