Intentional Homicide Rates

The population of Iraq was estimated to be approximately 31,234,000, as of 2009 (source:wikipedia). There were an estimated 4,645 "deaths from violence" in 2009 in Iraq (source:www.iraqbodycount.com).

That works out to an intentional homicide rate (assuming all deaths from violence were intentional (which is actually probably an overestimate)) of 14.87 per 100,000 people.

Another estimate of the homicide rate for Iraq, from the Wikipedia, is 21 per 100,000 people in 2009.

The murder rate in Washington DC in 2009 was 23 per 100,000 people. And it has come WAY, WAY down. The rate has been double that or more in previous years.

The answer is clear. We should pull out of Washington, D.C.*

*Actually, to be fair, the rate in Baltimore was actually quite a bit higher than DC in 2009, but we can't pull out of Baltimore because of The Wire.