Michigan congressman says parts of Iraq are as safe as Detroit or Chicago

[sabra]

Source: AP

DETROIT – A Republican congressman from Michigan said parts of Iraq are no more dangerous than Detroit, drawing the ire of the mayor's office and the state Democratic Party.

During an interview Monday with WILS-AM, Rep. Tim Walberg said the returning troops he has talked with “indicate to me that 80 to 85 percent, in a conservative fashion, of the country is reasonably under control, at least as well as Detroit or Chicago or any of our other big cities. That's an encouraging sign.”

...

Walberg responded: “Well, in fact, in many places it's as safe and cared for as Detroit or Harvey, Ill., or some other places that have trouble with armed violence that takes place on occasion.”

...

State Democratic Party chairman Mark Brewer demanded Wednesday that Walberg apologize to his constituents and Detroit residents.

“To compare our largest city to Iraq, a country currently in the middle of a bloody civil war where thousands of our troops and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, many by beheading and torture, is unconscionable,” Brewer said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070321-2015-detroit-iraq.html

[Monkeyman]

1. Chicago huh hmm there are some places here I like to make him walk in

[madrchsod]

5. send him through the regular intake at the cook county jail..

my son had the pleasure of sitting in cook county for almost three months...he`s been through the system for a few years but he told me he`s never ever seen people like he did in cook county in any of the places he`s stayed...in fact one of his roommate at one place was a guy who was the trigger man the loop several years ago and that guy did`t scare him...

[Kikosexy2]

9. Well duh..

the Green Zone is mighty safe indeed...

[SteppingRazor]

2. The most annoying part? CNN identified the Congressman as a Democrat

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=472296

Along with the link here, I also saw the graphic this morning on CNN.

[maxsolomon]

3. kurdistan, the empty SW desert

BFD, bush whore.

[azurnoir]

4. OMG he was inadvertantly truthful

and that is the sad part, i would not walk alone in broad daylight in many parts of Detroit or Chicago

[louis-t]

8. Gee, I walk alone in Detroit all the time.

I've never been shot, kidnapped, beheaded, bombed (well not THAT kind of bombed), never had holes drilled in my head with power tools. Never saw piles of mutilated bodies laying in the street. The only IED's or landnmines I've ever had to avoid came from someone's dog. The power works 99.99% of the time and the water is clean. Other than that, Baghdad is exactly like Detroit.

[kysrsoze]

12. Same here in Chicago. I'll go anywhere in Chicago during the day

There are a few places I wouldn't go at night, but I'd still rather go there than any spot in Baghdad.

[Monkeyman]

15. You would walk on the South Side hmmm

There are some places you just don't go just like some bars like windslows in Bridgeport. But Chicago is safer then Bagdad.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

18. Born and rasied in Motown

:) Don't live there now, but don't like people dissin' on Motown.......... not that you are, the Congress man is :)

[noamnety]

13. buncha bs

The problem with Iraq is not that "going out for a walk alone" is dangerous.

Equating Detroit with an actual war zone is beyond insulting.

[KingFlorez]

23. Nonsense

It's grossly untruthful what he said

[azurnoir]

26. Ever lived in a neighborhood that been invaded by

crack and gangs? I have, the northside of Minneapolis in the '90's. Over a period of about a year the following things happened-
The house on the north side of us was raided by police using a front end loader. this happened in the middle of the night we thought our furnace had exploded
The other side of the double bungalow we lived in was raided using flash bangs this was in the middle of the day still thought something had exploded, as it turned out this was an oops by the cops.
Three people were shot in our front yard (separate incidents), this doesn't count other places near by there were probably about 50 shootings within 3 or 4 blocks
Automatic gun fire after dark at least 2 or 3 nights a week
Police at least on every 3 weeks doing neighborhood wide raids, they would cordon off either end of the block and if you were outside it was down on the ground and you were searched didn't matter if you were a baby or 90 years old.
Crack dealers on roof tops with walkie talkies communicating police movements to each other.
Maybe not quite a war zone but as close as I would get.
No we don't live there anymore.

[Dhalgren]

6. Here's the question: How many US cities would be unsafe with thousands of

fully armed combat troops on the streets? You simply can't compare things on this superficial level....

[Carni]

7. What an idiot--like that is something to brag about?

Detroit looks a war zone in some (hell MANY) neighborhoods!

Leave it to a republican to make such a completely asinine statement to justify their bizarro world logic.

[Demeter]

10. Even During the Riots (and I was There) Detroit Was Safer Than Iraq

ever will be.

[Toucano]

11. Then he should prove it by moving his family there for 6 months. n/t

[VWolf]

14. Yeah, the empty parts nt

[roamer65]

16. Walberg is an extremist RW twit.

I hear Schwarz, the moderate Rethug, who previously held the seat, is going after him in the next election.

This seat is also being targeted by the DCCC in 2008.

[northzax]

17. this is completely true

the parts of Iraq you most want to be stuck in are like the parts of Chicago you least want to be stuck in.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. When we had our civil war, 85% of our country was sorta peaceful, too.

The other 15%? Not so much.

Part of the reason is that the peaceful parts were emptied out to supply bodies for the war.

[enki23]

20. sure. compare the best of baghdad to the worst of chicago and detroit. there ya go.

of course, not a lot of car bombs or ied's in chicago. most of the people who are murdered aren't strangers to the murderer in detroit and chicago. they're mostly made up of domestic violence and gang violence and awfully damned seldom have anything to do with ethnic violence (they're largely intra-ethnic killings) and have nothing whatsoever to do with religious or political differences. but nevermind all that...

let's just compare base murder rates on the worst street on the worst block in the worst section of america's most violent place, to the middle of the us officers club in the center of the green zone.

see? iraq is a fucking paradise. it's all in how you look at it.

[SpikeTss]

21. UN chief Ban Ki-moon agrees on that

He would, wouldn't he?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6479821.stm

:hide:

[Sapere aude]

22. I use to go to Saigon now Ho Chi Minh City regularly in 1967 and it was as safe as

Chicago,then in early 1968 all hell broke loose. It wasn't really "safe" again until March of 1968 when I left. Even In March they were lobing mortar shells into Ton Su Nut so we couldn't leave for three days after we were scheduled to leave.

Safe? Iraq? War is never really safe.

[Bozita]

24. In Detroit and Chicago today, there have been NO mortar shells exploding 40 yds away ...

... from any press conferences.

I just checked.

[youngdem]

25. Yeah.....The Desert Parts.