Consider the opening lines from this editorial in the Chicago Tribune:

As of Friday, the number of U.S. military fighters killed or missing in the war with Iraq stood at 133.

As of Friday, the number of people murdered in Chicago this year stood at 164. Unlike some of those killed overseas, not one victim on the home front was slain by friendly fire.

We needed homeland defense long before 9/11, and not just from foreign terrorists. I can't begin to identify all the causes of crime--most of them would be controversial anyway--but we need to do better.

A good start would be to recognize that the most fundamental right we have is the right to life. Courts have focused so much on the rights of defendants that they can't seem to see the effect they are having on that most important one.