If you ignore all the homeless people, poverty's not a big issue, either

You've all probably heard the claim that "Washington, D.C., is more dangerous than Iraq is!" generally followed with the taunt "Should we pull out of there?" or "Let's pull out of Washington." And then there are the claims that the violence in Iraq is somehow decreasing. Of course, to arrive at these absurd conclusions, they have to massage the numbers... by which I mean, twist them into pretzels. Here's one way they seem to love:

According to U.S. military figures, an average of 1,000 Iraqis have died each month since March in sectarian violence. That compares with about 1,200 a month at the start of the security plan, the military said in an e-mailed response to queries. This does not include deaths from car bombings, which the military said have numbered more than 2,600 this year.

Yeah. As long as you ignore the leading cause of deaths in Iraq, things are going great.