THE DEATH OF A GANGBANGER = THE DEATH OF A U.S SOLDIER?

Does the death of a gangbanger who died in a turf war last year on the streets of Los Angeles or Chicago matter as much as the death of an American soldier in Iraq?

This is the implication of one of Victor Davis Hanson's favorite statistical equivalency arguments which he uses to defend the U.S. military occupation of Iraq:

"500 Americans tragically are dead [in Iraq], a fatality rate as great as those murdered in either Chicago or Los Angeles last year."