During the Baghdad ethnic cleansing after the Samarra mosque bombing, the a typical day was 80 to 100 bodies found dumped along the side of the road, in garbage dumps, or in back alleys per day with however many other deaths due to bombings, mortars and large scale gun battles. Baghdad had a population of slightly more than 7 million people before the start of the mass ethnic cleansing and refugee crisis. 100 dead per day works out to a daily rate of 14.3 deaths per day per million people. That is a level that everyone recognized as a social system disrupter.
Nat Turner at the Agonist links to an article with the yearly death toll in Mexico that is attributable to Calderon's attempted crackdown on the cartels:
2009 will be another record-breaking year in Calderon�s drug war. In just three years in office, Calderon has surpassed his predecessor Vicente Fox�s narco-murder rate for his entire term in office. It is estimated that there were anywhere between 9,000 and 13,000 drug-related murders during Fox�s six-year term. Calderon has also beaten his own record: with one month left in the year, 2009�s 6,500 executions thus far have already surpassed last year�s 6,262...
The skyrocketing violence in Mexico can�t even be justified by the drug war�s quantitative results. According to the US government�s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), drug seizures have decreased since Calderon began his war on drugs, and drug production is on the rise.
In Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people, there were approximately 1,800 drug related murders in 2008. Michael Ware of CNN reports that 2009 will demolish that previous record.. 1,800 murders related to drug violence works out to be roughly 3.5 deaths per day per million people. 2,500 drug related murders works out to be 4.5 deaths per million people per day. Michael Ware reported that the pace of violence has accelerated markedly in the past few months. The day that he was in Juarez saw at least thirteen drug related murders.
The pace and intensity of violence in Juarez has not reached the Baghdad ethnic cleansing level of 2007. However it is at a level that is comparable to the violence in Baghdad in 2004 through 2006.
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