Virginia vs Iraq
I have no intention of participating in the rabid posting about the Virginia Tech massacre. I grieve for the families in Blacksburg and can only imagine the pain they’re feeling after losing a child, loved-one or friend. But it is the grief that strikes me most about the national reaction to this event.
A single, and yes, horrible, murder of 32 people is a tragedy, but what about what is going on around the rest of the world, especially Iraq where our nation is the direct cause of so much suffering? And on a scale much larger than that of Virginia Tech. Former CIA agent Larry Johnson helps place the events of Virginia Tech into perspective.
What are we to make of the bizarre contrast between our national grief over the terrible slaughter of students and faculty at Virginia Tech and our muted reaction to the continuing bloodbath in and around Baghdad? One mass killing in the 209 years since Virginia Tech was founded is not exactly a trend. It is a terrible thing but not likely to be repeated anytime soon.We cannot say the same about events in Baghdad and Iraq. Just today four separate car bombs in and around Baghdad teft at least 160 Iraqis–mostly Shia–dead. Yesterday, Tuesday, at least 85 bodies turned up and there were more bombings. Monday was not much better–thirty corpses and at least twenty killed in bombings. Sixty nine plus on Sunday. And the beat goes on.
Think about those numbers in relationship to the anger expressed by the public and press because Virginia Tech University officials failed to prevent Monday’s massacre. What would we be saying if another shooter showed up at Virginia Tech on Tuesday and killed 20 more students and another shooter bagged an additional 40 on Wednesday? The President of the University would be lynched, the students would arm themselves, and the police would lose any pretense of control. Why do we think Iraqi Shias and Sunnis should react differently then we would?
How can we be so upset about Virginia Tech, and be calling for increased security measures for a one-in-a-million event, when events just like it happen in Iraq on a daily basis? I think of the grief I feel when I hear a man talk about the loss of his daughter in Virginia, and then I think of all of the stories I don’t hear about from Iraqi parents, and it breaks my heart.
Should we ignore what happens in Iraq because it’s half-a-world away? Or maybe because they’re Muslims? Out of sight, out of mind is not an excuse. I suppose we can put some blame on the media for not giving Iraq the same coverage they are to Virginia, but we can use our own imaginations as well. Next time you hear about a bombing in Iraq that took the lives of 30 people, think about the national grief of America regarding Virginia, and apply it to the daily horrors visited upon the people of Iraq.
In the total scheme of things the horror unfolding in Iraq will affect our nation’s security more than a month of Virginia Tech massacres. Yet our attention is riveted on Blacksburg not Baghdad. There are some silver linings. At least the media is covering genuine grief and anguish as opposed to the nonsense of a Don Imus or Anna Nicole Smith. And maybe, just maybe, as we contemplate what it means to mourn the single day massacre of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech we will develop an empathy for Iraqis who, today, are mourning the equivalent of five Virgina Techs.But the Iraqis won’t sleep tonight with the hope that today’s heartache was an aberration. Nope. They wake up each and every day confronting a new horror just as bad as Monday in Blacksburg, Virginia. When government institutions and officials prove incompetent or incapable of protecting citizens it is no shocker that people take matters into their own hands. Welcome to the Hobbesian world of modern Iraq.