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The US death toll in Iraq hit 3,000 on December 31. Not a good way to end the year. That number is for three years and ten months at war.
The US death toll in the United States for gang-related homicide was 1,072 in 2003 (Figure extrapolated from data pulled from the following two websites: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vgm03.pdf http://crime.about.com/od/stats/Crime_Statistics_Data_and_Legal_Resource....

In contrast, we lost fewer than 500 soldiers in Iraq in the ten months of 2003 that we were there.

Tell me, what are we doing about the war right here? What are we doing about the people held hostage in their homes? What are we doing about the innocent bystanders being taken out in gang-related crossfire? Why is it that I had to research for over an hour, and then extrapolate the figure 1,072 using two different sources because the data just isn’t readily available?

Let me make it more personal. In 2006, I lost two former students to gang violence. Both young women were shot because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and not because they were themselves affiliated with gangs. Two current students were shot and survived. Both are affiliated with local gangs. Neither is allowed to live at home any more, because the families are too afraid to have them there.

Right here, in a suburban community of Los Angeles, over 30 miles away from Compton and over 20 miles away from East Los Angeles.