Chicago loses more Black kids than soldiers in Iraq to gun violence

Besides the fact that this affects me personally, this is the reality of life in the United States for ethnic minorities.  While the U.S. purports to bring democracy and the American way of life to Iraq, children die in the U.S. due to gun violence.

This country should be ashamed of itself.  - The Angryindian 

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From Intelligentaindigena Novajoservo:

Recently in Chicago, a teen gunman boarded a crowded public bus near a high school and opened fire with a handgun. I imagined this scene must have been similar to the bus bombings that are so common in wartorn Iraq.

As I researched this analogy, I found striking similarities between what is happening in black communities across the United States and what is happening in a full-fledged war zone in Iraq. The major difference is that far more black children are dying in Chicago than Chicago soldiers are dying in Iraq.

At about 24 deaths a year, Chicago children are being killed 24 times the rate that Chicago soldiers are being killed in Iraq. Statistics from Military Genealogy Trails show that during the five-year period between September 2001 and July 2006, six soldiers from Chicago were killed in Iraq combat. In a startling comparison, however, during an eight-year period between 1998 and 2007, 190 Chicago Public School children, mostly black, died in gun-related incidents.

This year, the violent death toll in nine months totals 27 for Chicago's public school students, again, mostly black youth.

Chicago is no different than any other city, because deadly violence in the lives of black children today is a constant, overwhelming reality in America