Per the US crime statistics that were just released today, the US suffered 16,900 homicides last year, and approx. 1,900,000 violent crimes overall. What is truly remarkable about the homicide figure is that the US has one of the most advanced emergency response and trauma care systems in the world, thus the same number of violent crimes committed in most other nations would result in many times the number of homicides we have.

Houston, a city of 2 million, experienced 334 homicides, or 1:5988 citizens. Philadelphia, a city of 1.5 million, experienced 377 homicides, or 1:3978. Using these figures against the population of Baghdad, you get the following number of homicides: 1002 (Houston figure) or 1508 (Philly figure). Again, taking into consideration the lack of superior emergency service and trauma care in Baghdad, in this light, things dont look too bad.

Given the figure of 1.9 million violent crimes, this means that Iraq could have 165,605 violent crimes, and still only be as bad or good as the US.

Food for thought.