My sentiments exactly

Extremely well written post. The tendency to view peoples lives from outside the US as less than ours is shameful. When Americans die the world must stop, every detail must be examined and someone must pay.

Enemy of the State: "
There will be no CNN interviews with grieving family members. No cousins and neighbors will tearfully tell you that little Hussain drove his mother (also murdered) nuts asking questions about everything, always with a follow-up 'why?' No one will show you Sadiqa's remarkable drawings of birds, flowers, her brothers and sisters, you will not be told that Nadia Bibi wanted to be a teacher, and loved to make her little brothers 'play school,' that Ameer could make any vehicle go, that Tahira's embroidery was famous for miles around, that Zahid could imitate a chicken so accurately that he used to fool the whole family all the time, even Grandma Noor, who always had room in her lap for one more, always had one more story to tell about the old days, always had an answer for Hussain's invariable 'why?.

Maybe none of that is true. None of the victims are considered important enough for CNN, or any other news organization to go to Damadola and ask. Oh, they are in Damadola, but they will not ask about the victims, their producers will not instruct them to prepare heart-rending stories of their lives, to make them real people to you, so that you get to know them, mourn them, and feel appropriate rage at the barbarous and brutal entity that blew them to pieces, little arms and heads and legs all over the place to be collected.

There will be no mention of any witnesses being treated for shock, no one smoothing out the skirt of a doll's dress, voice breaking as they tell you that Sadiqa received this doll as a gift for her tenth birthday and took it everywhere, that Tahira embroidered the dress with the same artistry as if it were a wedding dress for a princess.

These are not, after all, Israeli victims of a suicide bombing in a pizza parlor, not the families of US gunmen killed in Iraq.

Even the headline in the Frontier Post says '18 Tribesmen Killed'."

Go read the rest, it is excellent work.

When I worked in the black tower at Universal Studios, we used to have a joke when Lew Wasserman or a star would get on the elevator with us. Said person and 7 others were killed in an elevator accident would be the headline and the only time we were mentioned. Whatever tragedy that occurs outside this nation is only important if an American is killed. Bhopal (India) and the tsunami (Indian Ocean) spring to mind. They should just laugh and get on with their lives. It's the American thing to do.

Tags: Pakistan, tragedy