I can’t get past this story in the New York Times this morning:
Twenty-seven people, many of them children, were killed by a suicide truck bomb today as the children gathered around an Army vehicle where troops were handing out chocolates and other gifts. The blast was so powerful it set a nearby house on fire. The attack, which killed an American soldier and wounded three others, occurred about 10:50 a.m. in east Baghdad, according to the United States military. As service members in a Humvee were giving presents to a group of children, a vehicle filled with explosives detonated. “There were some American troops blocking the highway when a U.S. Humvee came near a gathering of children, and U.S. soldiers began to hand them candies,” a man named Karim Shukir told The Associated Press. “Then suddenly, a speeding car showed up and struck both the Humvee and the children.”
One thing we need to remember: the carnage we just saw in London is happening in Iraq on a regular basis. Iraq’s population is less than half Britain’s. Part of me feels very angry that we have not been able to live up to our moral and military responsibility to provide better security for these people in the wake of liberation. But part of me also realizes that total security is impossible when facing these theocratic monsters. The only hope is that the sheer evil of these people will turn moderate Iraqis and Muslims against them. Maybe they will destroy themselves. But we need to keep our moral senses from becoming numb, and remember that the human casualties in Iraq are every bit as terrible as those in London. And they are committed by very similar forces.
The Dish 