As shocking as the shooting at Virginia Tech is, it is helpful to put it into context with what Iraqi citizens live through every day of their lives. In Virginia 32 people were murdered in cold blood. In Iraq this is an every day occurrence, sometimes two or three times a day. Bombs going off in busy markets kill innocent men, women and children and the number of deaths often exceeds the number of students killed at Virginia Tech.
President Bush constantly reminds us that the reason we are in Iraq is so that the fight against terrorism can be fought over there, in Iraq, thereby preventing the fight being brought to our streets. After the Virginia Tech massacre this reasoning seems utterly thoughtless. Do we really believe that the daily death and destruction in Iraq is acceptable because it is in someone else's country?
The shock of this terrible shooting in Virginia should help us understand that this kind of brutality is an everyday event for the people of Iraq. The sad fact is that we have come to believe it is acceptable because it happens there and not here.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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