Friday, September 28, 2007

More perspective

During the 'peace rally' in St Paul a few weeks ago, I mentioned to one of the demonstrators that I felt more safe in the Anbar province than I would in Minneapolis at night. This generated some laughs, but I wasn't just stating an irrational thought.
Al Anbar encompasses over 53,000 square miles and about 1,200,000 people.
Minneapolis covers 58.4 square miles and has a population of about 388,000.
Al Anbar, during August, saw 8 US troops killed.
Minneapolis, during August, saw 7 murders.
I was never good at statistics, but my math says that in an area with 3 times the population, 900 times the real estate, and was generally thought to be lost to AQI just a year ago, 1 more American was killed than in a major US city. And then there's the small fact that Anbar is part of a combat zone.
So my question is, if I transfer to a National Guard unit in Minneapolis, will I get combat pay?
I'm kidding of course, because there are no Guard armories in Minneapolis. Maybe it's too dangerous.

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