Fair to Compare

There will be those who say it's NOT fair to compare Virginia Tech with Iraq.  On one level, they are correct.  Juan Cole will take some heat for this column. But, read it with an open mind. There is substantial value to the comparison he outlines.

7 US Troops Killed; Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs ...

I keep hearing from US politicians and the US mass media that the "situation is improving" in Iraq. The profound sorrow and alarm produced in the American public by the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech should give us a baseline for what the Iraqis are actually living through. They have two Virginia Tech-style attacks every single day. Virginia Tech will be gone from the headlines and the air waves by next week this time in the US, though the families of the victims will grieve for a lifetime. But next Tuesday I will come out here and report to you that 64 Iraqis have been killed in political violence. And those will mainly be [...]

It is, indeed, a Harsh Reality:

Two of our writers have compared the carnage at VA Tech to a quiet day in Iraq, and how the families of Iraqis suffer every day. This is a harsh reality to juxtapose with the horror we've experienced here in the US today. I have mixed feelings about running them. One reader curses our newest writer, Larry Johnson, a former CIA and State Department official, for "using" in his article, the deaths, to argue his cause. There's a lot of justifiable pain and passion around this senseless event. But if someone can "use" it to give meaning to other senseless events, even if it hurts, then perhaps it is one way that these deaths have done some small amount of good. Having two kids in college myself, I shudder [...]

UPDATE:  Even among the friends of the victims, the comparison is being made:

Tragedy brings home war zone reality

Tags: Virginia Tech, Iraq War, Juan Cole

Powered by Qumana