Walking over the Dead

"According to the Associated Press, 233 people were killed Wednesday throughout Iraq, making it the second deadliest day since the news agency began keeping a tally of the dead two years ago. Iraqi police said that 191 people were killed in Baghdad alone.

"The Sadriyah marketplace in the center of Baghdad, a predominantly Shia area, was the scene of the most horrific of the bombings, which claimed 140 live, while wounding 150 others, making it the deadliest such attack since the US invasion of March 2003. Angry crowds at the scene denounced the Iraqi government and the US occupation as those responsible for the carnage..."

"Bush began the meeting with a ritualistic statement about Democrats and Republicans alike sending “our prayers to the families of the victims” of the massacre at Virginia Tech. No such expressions of concern were voiced, however, for the seven times as many people killed under the US occupation in the hours before the meeting began."

For the Iraqis, every 4 hours is another Virginia Tech massacre. We will be inundated for months with minute analyses of the psychology of the VT murderer. There will be no such analyses for the 655,000 Iraqis who have died. Psychologists will not parade across the screen explaining the motivations for those U.S. soldiers who murdered 184,000 Iraqis in the past four years. Before you go to bed tonight, another Virginia Tech massacre will have taken place in Iraq. By the time you wake up, two more. Can you spare a moment to send up a prayer for their families? Do you have a tear for them?