Opinion: Body counts

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

News-oriented websites around the country continue to burst with pieces about the Virginia Tech massacre two days after the fact, as befits a killing spree of historic proportions. Just to keep things in perspective, though, you might note another event that’s drawing only one story per site. A bombing several hours ago in a Baghdad neighborhood claimed more than three times as many lives as the Virginia Tech shootings (the LA Times story says 115 dead; the NY Times says at least 140, with an additional 150 wounded). A car blast in the same neighborhood in February took 130 lives. I’m not making the comparison to downplay the tragedy in Blacksburg in any way. It was an act of singular, crazed inhumanity, and it resonates in part because it seemed so random. The victims in Iraq were chosen with a degree of randomness, too, but at least they fit into a framework that’s comprehensible. To wit, war is hell. Still, it’s worth wondering what the effect would be if the same kind of saturation coverage that Cho’s rampage in Blacksburg has received (profiles of all the victims, reaction from friends and families, extensive analysis of the killer’s background and motives, etc.) were given to the latest incident in Baghdad.