Juan Cole and Larry Johnson, among others, hit on the same thing that went through my mind as the national media reacted with shock and horror to the tragedy at Virginia Tech: as sad and frightening as it is, this kind of violence is a daily occurence in Iraq.
Cole, speaking on PBS's Newshour last night, noted:
Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.
Johnson, writing on his blog No Quarter yesterday, summed it up this way:
The people of Iraq are living in a Marquis de Sade version of Groundhog Day. It is like the Bill Murray movie--the same horrible day repeated with some new, bizarre twists--only not funny. Multiple body counts and explosions and shootings are the daily experience of the people of Iraq. They have been living this hell for four years. Just keep that fact in mind as you mourn the deaths of 22 American students slain in Blacksburg, Viginia.
He also provided a rundown of just one day's worth of violence in Iraq (this past Sunday, the day before the incident at Virginia Tech):
04/15/07 Reuters: 19 bodies found in Baghdad on Saturday
Police found the bodies of 19 people in various parts of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said.04/15/07 Reuters: 20 Iraqi troops and policemen abducted
A group linked to al Qaeda said it abducted 20 Iraqi troops and policemen and demanded the release of all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons, according to a Web statement.04/15/07 Reuters: 4 killed by suicide bombers in Mosul
Four people, including two Iraqi soldiers, were killed and 16 wounded when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside a military base in the northern city of Mosul, police said.04/15/07 AP: Suicide bomber kills 5, wounds 11 in northwest Baghdad
A suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus in northwest Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, police and hospital officials said.04/15/07 AP: 37 die as car bomb hits near Iraq shrine
A car bomb blasted through a busy bus station near one of Iraq's holiest shrines Saturday, killing at least 37 people, police and hospital officials said.
IraqSlogger goes a step further and directly contrasts the tragedy at Virginia Tech with what universities in Iraq have been experiencing (which receives little or no attention in our mainstream media):
On Monday, the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting, two separate shooting incidents struck Mosul University, one killing Dr. Talal Younis al-Jelili, the dean of the college of Political Science as he walked through the university gate, and another killing Dr. Jaafar Hassan Sadeq, a professor from the Faculty of Arts at the school, who was targeted in front of his home in the al-Kifaat area, according to Aswat al-Iraq.
In January, Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University sufferred a double suicide bombing in January that killed at least 70 people, including students, faculty, and staff. A month later, another suicide bomber struck at Mustansiriya, killing 40.
Kidnappings of students and faculty are another all-too-common occurrence on Iraq’s campuses. Members of the univerisity community have been abducted and murdered for sectarian reasons, or simply held for ransom. […]
In January, students reported that violent events had threatened students that attendance rates at Baghdad University had dropped to six percent.
Earlier this month, the Dr. Qais Jawad al-Azzawi, head of the Geneva-based Committee International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors said that 232 university professors were killed and 56 were reported missing in Iraq, while more than 3,000 others had left the country after the 2003 invasion.
Though it's not just university students in Iraq. Consider this from yesterday's prominently featured USA Today story (and kudos to them for giving it so much attention):
About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.
...Many Iraqi children have to pass dead bodies on the street as they walk to school in the morning, according to a separate report last week by the International Red Cross. Others have seen relatives killed or have been injured in mortar or bomb attacks.
"Some of these children are suffering one trauma after another, and it's severely damaging their development," said Said Al-Hashimi, a psychiatrist who teaches at Mustansiriya Medical School and runs a private clinic in west Baghdad. "We're not certain what will become of the next generation, even if there is peace one day," Al-Hashimi said.
...
In the study, schoolteachers were asked to determine whether randomly selected students showed any of 10 symptoms identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as signs of trauma. Other symptoms included voluntary muteness, declining performance in school or an increase in aggressive behavior.
The teachers received training from Iraqi psychologists on how to identify and help students cope with trauma-related stress, Al-Aboudi said.
The study "shows the impact of the violence and insecurity on the children and on children's mental health," said Naeema Al-Gasseer, the Iraqi representative of the WHO. "They have fear every day."
The Iraqi government is aware of the problem but largely unequipped to address it, said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman. "Until we have proper security in Baghdad, there's not much we can do to help these children," al-Dabbagh said in Washington.
If there was ever a time for Americans to attempt to wrap their heads around the daily horror being inflicted on students of all ages in Iraq, in addition to adult and elderly civilians, it is now. It's no accident that you hear less - or practically nothing - these days from Bush administration officials on the wonderful school attendance of Iraqi children. And then try to imagine the unimaginable: consider what life would be like if every day were like Monday. That is Iraq. Today, tomorrow and the next day. Until we stop their suffering. Until the mainstream media captures half of the horror and sorrow it's managed to present in just two days worth of Virginia Tech coverage. Until our press corps asks our president how he can be "shocked" by this tragedy but not by the one his war of choice wreaks every single day on the Iraqi people, our soldiers and their families. Warmongers (even the chickenhawks running our country) love to talk about "gut-checks." Well, you want a gut-check? Here it is. Due to circumstances created by this White House, a Republican-led Congress, a lapdog press corps and, yes, millions of Americans who supported them, it's not enough that we mourn these young men and women of Virginia Tech and pray for their families. We have no right to mourn this tragedy, lick our wounds and then go about our daily lives again. The time for shopping has long been over. The war in Iraq must end now. Gut-check. (Big h/t to Think Progress)
Virginia Tech Massacre Is Our Gut-Check
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | April 17, 2007 at 09:37 PM
Hound: you, Cole, Johnson and Olbermann last night, are so absolutely right on the money. And just before I read your post, I saw this breaking news story on CNN.com:
"Bombings in Baghdad kill 127 people, including 82 in an attack at a market, the Iraqi Interior Ministry says."
In other words, just another day in the deathpit known as Iraq.
Posted by: buzz19 | April 18, 2007 at 09:44 AM
Amen!! Thank you for this.
Posted by: Ruth in Ohio | April 18, 2007 at 02:29 PM
What we call the worst shooting ever in our history, (it wasn't - see here ), Iraq calls Monday.
I kinda hit on that in yesterday's post too.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robib | April 18, 2007 at 04:09 PM
Good point, Brave Sir! If only our national press corps concerned itself with being historically accurate (let alone remembering what happened two months ago):
"There, on the snowy banks of Wounded Knee Creek (Cankpe Opi Wakpala), nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children -- old and young -- were massacred in a highly charged, violent encounter with U.S. soldiers."
(From "The Wounded Knee Massacre" by Lori Liggett, BGSU, Summer 1998)
As bad as Monday was, it pales in comparison to this day for Native Americans.
And, yes, imagining one's own children having to maneuver around corpses on their way to school is simply unfathomable.
Posted by: MediaBloodhound | April 18, 2007 at 05:00 PM