PERSPECTIVE

And a poke in the eye to the media who can muster no journalism beyond the Baghdad Body Count.

While the news media keep reminding us that we are, indeed, suffering losses in Iraq due to cowardly and murderous former supporters of Saddam Hussein, plus all kinds of al Qaeda riff-raff, with who-knows-how-many Iranian provocateurs, the murder rate in Philadelphia, by early August, was up 23% with---are you ready for this---198 killed. At that pace, by the end of 2003, the city will experience 337 murders. Across the nation in Oakland, California, that city was marking its 76 murders as of late August.

And in Washington, DC, our nation's capital and workplace of so many Democrat politicians eager to denounce the President, by June the District had reclaimed its status as the murder capital of the United States. According to FBI statistics, the city had a higher homicide rate than any other city in the nation with more than 500,000 residents.

Yes, dear reader, statistically you have a better chance of being shot to death in Washington, DC than in Baghdad. So, the next time your local daily or nightly TV news trumpets the number of US battle casualties in Iraq, you should probably give some thought to wearing a bulletproof vest if you plan to visit the Lincoln Memorial.

And meanwhile, as if to sadly, sadly, demonstrate how true this is...comes this story from Long Beach California.

Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung, a 22-year-old combat engineer who participated in the rescue operation of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch in April and was awarded the Purple Heart for taking shrapnel to the leg two weeks later, died early Sunday after a gunman opened fire as he and several friends were barbecuing oysters behind his father's home.

"It's a real shame to think that he went to hell and back in Iraq and sacrificed so much only to come back here and get killed like this,' said Gunnery Sgt. Graham Hilson, who served alongside Ung in Iraq. "It just goes to show you that sometimes it's more dangerous over here than it is in war.'