ON SUNDAY, the New York Times printed full color photographs of people who died in the London suicide bombings, held up by devastated family members and friends. The images drive home the cruelty and the injustice of these attacks, and the story details the loss of 55 "diverse and promising lives" that were cut short decades too soon.
Next to the photographs, an article announces, "Suicide bomber ignites tanker, killing 59 Iraqis." There is no picture, and victims are described dispassionately by their occupations in an article that is primarily concerned with the facts of where, when and how the bombing occurred. While the victims in London are humanized in heart-wrenching detail, the Iraqi victims appear as a numerical fact in a story that is framed primarily as a discussion of American strategy. This coverage is sadly representative of how utterly routine the violence in Iraq has become for the American media.
The London bombings were a horrifying and politically significant event, and Americans rightfully reacted with shock, sadness and empathy for the victims and their families. The tremendous response proved that Americans care about countries besides their own. But if we viewed all innocent lives as equally valuable, photographs of murdered Iraqi civilians would be splashed across the front pages of newspapers and magazines every week. All of the prayer vigils, heartfelt tributes and calls for justice would resound not just for our political allies, but for the innocent victims of terrorism in any country. These deaths would be more than an unfortunate statistic. We would see their faces, and we would know their names.
The American media were eager to humanize the Iraqi people when they displayed courage on election day, an event that seemed to validate American policy. But when Iraqis die in suicide bomb attacks, we are spared the color photos, the brutal truth: They, too, had diverse and promising lives. They left behind friends and family members who feel the same grief and anger that families feel in London, just as Americans felt wounded and enraged when thousands of innocent people died on Sept. 11.
Until we understand how Iraqis have been affected by these years of violence and death, we cannot begin to address the emotions behind the continuing struggle against the American occupation. In a recent address to the nation, President Bush claimed that foreign fighters and insurgents are fighting in Iraq "because they know that the survival of their hateful ideology is at stake" and because they fear the spread of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. With willfully ignorant statements, the president seeks to shield the public from the true consequences of an occupation gone horribly wrong.
We need only to look to our own experience with terrorism to understand how a grieving country's demand for justice can be misdirected toward those who were not responsible for the attacks. When President Bush offered Iraq as a target for our fear and outrage, Americans readily accepted the war as a response to Sept. 11.
Americans may not be directly responsible for the suicide bombing in Iraq, but the escalating violence is undeniably linked to the occupation in the minds of many Iraqis. The constant, deadly attacks on civilians represent a failure to provide adequate security and a failure to incorporate the public in a government that gives them true hope for control of their own country. American mistakes do not justify the violence in any way, but we must understand that our failures are a very real reason that the insurgency continues to recruit and operate successfully.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been reluctant to admit that Britain's involvement in Iraq could make his country a target. But no matter what motivated the London suicide bombers, the war in Iraq has undeniably resulted in more violence against soldiers and civilians. Nothing could ever justify this violence, but we cannot hope to stop it if we reduce the insurgency's grievances to a sinister hatred of "freedom."
Americans understand what happened in London. We see the blood-stained faces, the agony of friends and family, and we get it. But we must extend the same understanding to the people of Iraq if we can ever hope to grasp the damage that this occupation has caused. The nightmare that the people of London experienced this month is one that Iraqis experience every day. If we continue to ignore their suffering, we have no chance of winning the peace in Iraq.
Cari Lynn Hennessy is a Cavalier Daily columnist. She can be reached at chennessy@cavalierdaily.com.
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