A reader passed this on to me. It simply feels to “good” to be true (quotation marks necessary for all the obvious reasons). According to Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King, Iraq is less violent than lots of American cities. Without access to his data, it’s impossible to know whether he’s right. But, it seems worth finding out, no? Has anyone seen any better/more official violent-death rate statistics? I have to assume one reason this is skewed is that it includes the North and the — until recently — relatively quiet South. I’d be really shocked to find out the violent death rate for civilians in Baghdad was lower than DC’s.

Update: Obviously, I’m no fan of Think Progress , but this seems like a plausible smack-down.

Update II: James Taranto visited the issue as well a couple weeks ago.

Update III: King’s response to Taranto can be found here . Scroll down.