What's Iraq Like?

Monday's horrific shootings in Virginia remind us of the preciousness of life and the vulnerability of society. They also give us some glimpse as to what it must be like to live in Iraq.

Remember how you felt when you learned about the Blacksburg shootings -- when you learned that 32 people, people like yourself, living in your own country (if you're American), going about their daily business much like yourself, had been killed in a senseless suicide attack.

Now imagine hearing that the attack had killed five times that many people. Because that's what happened in Baghdad yesterday.

Imagine that additional bombings and shootings across the country brought the day's death toll to almost 230 -- nearly eight times as many as died in the Virginia shootings.

And finally imagine that such attacks, killing scores of people, occurred multiple times per week. Imagine not even having enough time to recover from being stunned by each attack before the next one.

That's what's happening in Iraq, where civilian casualties are actually higher than before the new Baghdad security plan was implemented.

Iraqis are people too, and our security plan doesn't seem to be providing them with much security.