But what a scary moment that was for my family. I was at work and didn't hear about it until the death toll was up to 20 and I got a hold of my sister who reassured me that my niece is fine. What an awful thing for those family for whom the news was tragic.

The pundits are all talking up a storm about gun control, but I had another thought.

By conservative estimates, over 650,000 Iraqi's have been killed as a direct result of violence stemming from our invasion of their country. The death toll in Afghanistan is unknown to me. We as a a nation are freaking out over this incredibly tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. But in terms of numbers, we haven't lost as many citizens as an average day in Iraq.

President Bush got on the television today and expressed his shock and offered condolences to the families of those hurt and killed today at my nieces school. Why doesn't he have any compassion for the Iraqi and Afghan citizens who have died? Do we as a people really think it's okay to put a higher value on an American life than we do on the life of a non-citizen? I just can't wrap my head around that.

Cross posted at http://feettofire.com/node/137