America and Iraq

The other night, Jon Stewart had Ali A. Allawi, a former Iraqi government official with a book out titled The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, on the Daily Show. One exchange toward the end of the interview stuck with me, both for the way Stewart handled this difficult subject and for the obviously heartfelt answer he received:

Jon Stewart: I don't even know it it's appropriate to broach it, but we, in this country, we've just had a very tragic situation occur at one of our universities. And it really has taken the country aback, and there's a real grieving process that we're going through. And going through it, mourning by learning about the victims, and learning about it and showing our support. You know, I hesitate to say – how does your country handle what is that type of carnage on a daily basis? Is there a way to grieve, is there a numbness that sets in?

Ali A. Allawi: Well, I think the scale of violence in Iraq is really inconceivable in your terms. We have, on a daily basis, what you had the other day at Virginia Tech – I mean, massacres of that scale. Practically on a daily basis. And it's very hard to grieve ... the scale of violence and its continuity is such it really numbs you.