Of Iraq and Virginia

Though it certainly is truly extraordinarily tragic, the only thing about the Virginia Tech shootings that makes it shocking or unthinkable is that it happened in Middle America, and not the Middle East, Africa, or almost any conceivable place in the world besides a narrow band where such things are relatively rare. The murder of more than a score and a half people is something that occurs on a regular, steady basis. If instead of a headline reading “Thirty-Three Dead after Deranged Gunman Rampages at Virginia University” it had instead said “Gunmen Massacre Thirty-Three Students at Baghdad University”, absolutely no one would bat an eye, yet the worth of the lives lost is exactly the same. Such headlines can be found multiple times every day. It’s always worthwhile to maintain a sense of proportion and perspective. What is the worst spree shooting in United States history is what we have caused Iraq to suffer daily, many times over. That is a point that one shouldn’t forget. We, through our allowance of George Bush and his associates, have caused thousands of tragedies on a scale that equals and surpasses that which happened April 16 in Virginia. The day after the assault, George Bush even traveled to speak at the University, yet he refuses to acknowledge his culpability in a much larger number of equally tragic, barbaric events. Independent of the Casus Belli for the war, the fact remains, unassailable, that this is what we have done; this is what we are responsible for. Whether or not the war was “justified”, there have been, again and again, actions that taken cumulatively, dwarf the tragedies that people in this country mourn: Virginia Tech, Columbine, Oklahoma City, Jonesboro, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and others.