Iraq is not the only Quagmire

Instapundit did a great job highlighting the language and reporting used to describe harsh conditions in violent cities which sound eerily similar to Iraq.

Here is the first:

A QUAGMIRE IN BALTIMORE:

A city council leader, alarmed by Baltimore's rising homicide rate, wants to give the mayor the power to put troubled neighborhoods under virtual lockdown.

"Desperate measures are needed when we're in desperate situations," City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran told The (Baltimore) Sun. He said he would introduce the legislation next week.

Under Curran's plan, the mayor could declare "public safety act zones," which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week intervals.

Police would be encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk individuals in those zones to search for weapons and drugs.

And the second:

DAVE HARDY:

50 heavily armed men abduct 7 police: four them of them found dead, three missing, gun battles leave 20 dead. About a thousand people so far this year shot or decapitated.

Iraq? No, northern Mexico, about a hundred miles south of here. Betting is that the gang was a drug lord's entourage.

Should we withdraw from Baltimore? Mexico?