Richard Perle, known as the “architect of the Iraq war,” asserted in his own film that one of the reasons for the invasion of Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s murder of 400,000 Iraqis.

This week, many Americans were overcome with grief over the 32 shooting deaths at Virginia Tech.
The day after the Virginia Tech memorial, at least 160 civilians died in and around Baghdad, killings that have been occurring at the rate of 1,600 a week with no memorial service in sight.

According to the United Nations, more than 1,000,000 civilians (500,000 of whom were children) died during the U.S. embargo of Iraq.

The British Medical Journal Lancet’s study on Iraqi war deaths concluded that about 650,000 Iraqis died between March 2003 and October 2006.

Do we ignore the Iraqi deaths in favor of American deaths out of ignorance or cold-heartedness?
The latest Iraqi war death count of American soldiers is hovering at 3,300, over 100 times as many who died at Virginia Tech.

In the coming weeks, will Tom Allen, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins again vote to fund the military budget for Iraq and the deaths caused by the occupation of Iraq?

If they vote to fund Iraq, then we will have a real problem because, by Perl’s count, we will be supporting a war that has murdered more people than Saddam Hussein.

Oh well, Memorial Day is coming.

Dexter J. Kamilewicz, Orr’s Island