The day after the big quake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean we learn that the death toll has exceeded 25,000 and one third of them are children. It is horrific without a doubt but catches our attention because it happened in a manner of minutes. A couple thousand miles to the west over the last two and half years between 2 and 4 times that many have died in Iraq, many of them children. We talk endlessly about the disaster in the Indian Ocean but we never talk about the deaths in Iraq. What's the difference? There was nothing we could have done to prevent the earthquake. We hear that in the disaster areas thousands more may die from water born diseases. We don't hear anything about the thousands who may die in Iraq from exposure to artillery shells made from depleted uranium.
If the earthquake in the Indian Ocean a disaster of "biblical proportion", what does that make Iraq?
Update
It's up to 50,000 this morning but the point remains the same.
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