The numbers I cited were from the last few months. But yeah I see what you're saying that the media keeps trying to subtly prop up Saddam as some kind of great leader to try to delegitimize the war. I don't think liberals ever met a tyrant they didn't love. If they knew that Hitler stood for the same things then they do now, they would love him too. I didn't write it well enough to get my point across. Instead of "firepower" I should have written small arms. How much the Kurds and Shi'ites were allowed access to them, I'm not so sure. But I saw stories on TV news about gun stores in Baghdad that implied there was hardly any gun control. That is consistent with all the celebratory gunfire at weddings, etc. all over the place in Iraq.
The point I was trying to make was that even though they had enough small arms to start a revolution to depose Saddam on their own, they were unable to get it organized, yet they still had murder rates lower than the rates of major cities in this country.
I didn't write it well enough to get my point across. Instead of "firepower" I should have written small arms. How much the Kurds and Shi'ites were allowed access to them, I'm not so sure. But I saw stories on TV news about gun stores in Baghdad that implied there was hardly any gun control. That is consistent with all the celebratory gunfire at weddings, etc. all over the place in Iraq. The point I was trying to make was that even though they had enough small arms to start a revolution to depose Saddam on their own, they were unable to get it organized, yet they still had murder rates lower than the rates of major cities in this country.Yeah, Baghdad is a case study of nearly unlimited gun freedoms. A murder rate 4 times lower than that of a city with the most liberal anti-2ndA mayor and governer, Chicago.