Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here’s an interesting statistic:
There has been a monthly average of 160,000 US troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 [U.S.] deaths. That gives a monthly 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.

Australia’s Deputy Chief of Army, Major General John Cantwell, holds a golden assault Tabuk rifle at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra June 18, 2007. The Australian War Memorial on Monday accepted the rifle — the Iraqi equivalent of the AK-47 — from the Australian military, who in turn received it from allied U.S. troops in thanks for taking part in the Iraq war. (Australian War Memorial/Handout/Reuters) Mon Jun 18, 10:22 AM ET

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Now that’s some bling I could totally use to kill my enemies with.  I wonder if it shoots Gold bullets as well?

FOXNews.com - Feisty Moments in GOP Debate as Candidates Go for Jugulars
“WASHINGTON — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani won the strongest applause of Tuesday night’s first-in-the-South Republican primary when he lashed out at Texas Rep. Ron Paul for suggesting that the United States’ non-interventionist policy invited the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

Wow…Ron Paul should really be running as a democrat. If there was ever a debate to get the 2nd or 3rd tier canidates who had to differentiate themselves, Ron Paul did it. After his comments about why the United States was attacked on 9/11 when he said “they attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think (Ronald) Reagan was right. We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. Right now, we’re building an embassy in Iraq that is bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting,” when he was explaining himself on about a question on the Iraq war.

When that happened next was Rudy Giuliani intergetted immediately basically saying how stupid his remarks were and asking Ron Paul to take back what he said:

“That’s really an extraordinary statement,” Giuliani said, interrupting FOX News panelist Wendell Goler. “That’s really an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I have ever heard that before and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11. I would ask the congressman withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that.”

I can really say questions asked by Fox News were more meaningful and much more direct than the last Debate.

Now I know why the Democrats refused to have a debate with Fox…they did not want to upset their consituents that hate Fox News with so much vitriol.

Petraeus has about 20 weeks.

Congressional leaders from both political parties are giving President Bush a matter of months to prove that the Iraq war effort has turned a corner, with September looking increasingly like a decisive deadline.

In that month, political pressures in Washington will dovetail with the military timeline in Baghdad. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, has said that by then he will have a handle on whether the current troop increase is having any impact on political reconciliation between Iraq’s warring factions. And fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1, will almost certainly begin with Congress placing tough new strings on war funding…

The new House proposal would immediately provide about $43 billion of the $95.5 billion the administration says it needs to keep the war going through Sept. 30… The remaining $52.5 billion in the bill would be contingent on a second vote in late July…

“There is a sense that by September, you’ve got to see real action on the part of Iraqis,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). “I think everybody knows that, I really do.”

“I think a lot of us feel that way,” agreed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

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