Just under 4,230 Americans died in the Iraq War during George W. Bush’s time in office. Nearly that many–3,903–have died in Chicago alone since Barack Obama took office in 2009.
The Atlantic reports that 4,229 Americans died in Iraq on Bush’s watch. That means over 4,200 Americans lost their lives in a country in the Middle East. But while Obama has been office, nearly 4,000 Americans have died in a city in the USA–and that city is gun-controlled Chicago.
ABC 7 reports 453 murders in Chicago in 2009 and the Chicago Tribune reports 435 for 2010. The Tribune also reports that there were 437 murders in Chicago in 2011, there were 506 in 2012, 420 in 2013, 416 in 2014, and 468 in 2015. As of December 27 there have been 768 murders in Chicago in 2016, but there are still four more days for that number to rise. In other words, there have been a total of 3,903 murders in gun-controlled Chicago from the start of 2009 through December 27, 2016, but that number could be higher before January 1, 2017 arrives, and will certainly be higher before Obama leaves office.
To be clear, the loss of even one American service member overseas is a loss that should be marked with solemness and honor. But during the Bush years the media seemed to report the casualty numbers in a way aimed at undercutting the war effort and/or finally proving George W. Bush had made a mistake by going to Iraq in the first place.
For example, on October 19, 2006, The Washington Post reported that the previous day–October 18–had witnessed the deaths of “10 American troops” across Iraq. This was “the deadliest day of combat for U.S. forces in 10 months.” But that was in a declared war zone. Chicago, on the other hand, is a Democrat-run city in which 70 people were shot over the course of Thanksgiving weekend 2016 alone. There were eight fatalities among those 70 shooting victims. On Father’s Day weekend 2016, fifty-six people were shot in Chicago, 13 fatally. And over Memorial Day weekend, 66 were shot and six were killed in Chicago, and the list goes on.
Again, contrasting military deaths with Chicago deaths is not meant to minimize the deaths of either, and it is certainly not to argue against fighting a war when a war has to be fought. However, juxtaposing the two does highlight the irony of Obama’s criticism of the Iraq War, a war which barely produced more casualties than the streets of Chicago have witnessed over the past eight years.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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