In the deadliest day in Baghdad since the latest American-led security plan for the city took effect two months ago, at least 146 people were killed today in a series of bombings that tore through predominantly Shiite crowds gathered at a bus depot, on a shopping street and near a police checkpoint, the authorities said.

Click through for a fairly horrific photograph.
Ken Olbermann asks:

It is an unspeakable and overwhelming tragedy, up to 30 young Americans killed violently, pointlessly, and the rest of us left with an urgent and almost helpless feeling that somebody could have done something to prevent it, and that everybody must do something to protect the next potential victims.

And yet, the same number of young Americans of approximately the same age have died in Iraq in the last 10 days.

It seems fair to ask the question: If the violent deaths in Virginia send a nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why isn't a continuous flow of American blood in Iraq generating a similar reaction?

It does seem fair to ask the question. However, I think that by leaving the question hanging Olbermann intends to score a political point instead of really thinking about it. He goes on to talk about how preventable the violence in Iraq is. I'm not so sure. If we hadn't gone in to begin with, we wouldn't have the problems we have now, but that decision has already been made. Does Olbermann have a peace plan, or merely a plan to pull out and let the people there consume each other in civil war?

We've grown accustomed to the violence in Iraq. Certainly we don't expect a college campus to face similar horrors. Bombings in Iraq aren't a shock. The soldiers there are connected to us, but they weren't drafted and they understand the risks they are taking. The people who live there, however, didn't ask for the hell they are living in. I do think that people have a tendency to view foreign people dying on their television screens with a great deal of detactment... Like they aren't real people, but characters in some mini-series. For at least a certain percentage of the population there is an element of self superiority, either ethnic or national or religious, in play. But for most I simply think they have conceptual trouble deeply comprehending the reality of places that they have never travelled to. They know intellectually that Iraq is real, but emotionally they don't get it on the same level as places they have touched.

Were we to be more emotionally involved, would it impact the outcome? I think perhaps it might. I'm interested in what others think.

Bombings Kill at Least 146 Iraqis in Baghdad - New York Times