Lest We Forget

The Virginia Tech shooting was a terrible tragedy, and raises all sorts of questions about American society, when 32 of its youngest, brightest and best can be gunned down in a heartbeat.

But...:

85 Iraqis dead. At least 85 people were killed or found dead yesterday. Police in Ramadi uncovered 17 decomposing corpses buried in two schoolyards in an area that until recently was under al-Qaida fighters' control. One body had yet to be recovered as authorities feared it was booby-trapped with a bomb.

Hit squads. In a sign Shia death squads are on the move after more than two months lying low, 25 bodies, most tortured, were found dumped in Baghdad. The three-day total, after weeks of much smaller numbers, was 67.[...]

13th U.S. death in three days. The U.S. military announced the death of a Marine from a "non-hostile incident" while on combat patrol in Anbar province Monday. It was the 13th American service member fatality reported since Saturday.

And...:

KANO, Nigeria -- Security forces in northern Nigeria battled gunmen blamed for a deadly attack on a police station a day earlier, with gunfire erupting around dawn Wednesday and witnesses reporting casualties.

Hundreds of soldiers and police surrounded the area as entire families fled, with parents holding their children close as they rushed down Kano's dusty streets. Departing residents reported seeing numerous dead bodies, but said they made no firm count in their haste to leave.

And...:

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Street battles in the Somali capital overnight left at least 11 people dead and dozens others injured, witnesses and health officials said Wednesday.

The fighting late Tuesday in northern and southern neighborhoods of Mogadishu between Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's fragile government and insurgents could be heard miles away. Some tank shells that Ethiopian troops fired in southern Mogadishu landed in the western part of the capital.

But mostly...:

BAGHDAD -- Four large bombs exploded across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 127 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.

In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in a mostly Shiite area of central Baghdad, killing at least 82 people and wounding 94, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.

A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The attack was one of four bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon, which killed at least 127 people in total, officials said.

We live in a dangerous world. I don't know what motivated Cho Seung-Hui . It may be that he reacted to what was going on in the world around him. It may be that his demons became too great to stop.

He was, however, one man on one college campus, and there are more terrifying things going on that will eventually affect us as well. It's well to focus our attention back on those. These incidents all have the Al Qaeda earmark about them.

Iraq
Somalia
Nigeria
Al Qaeda