last night i was reading blogs and was referred to an idea share site. one particular idea stood out to me:

As Judith Butler notes, the New York Times obituaries of the victims of the 9/11 attacks were deeply affecting; they were so straighforward, kind, and put human faces on the incomprehensible number of dead. Until now, we haven't seen the Americans killed in action in Iraq memorialized this way. If the Times doesn't do it, someone should. And, as Butler points out, in a just world, the Iraqi dead—military and civilian—would be given the same treatment, in the American press. If we hold Bush and Blair to their word, that we are "friends of the Iraqi people," then it makes all the more sense that we honor their victims in a way similar to our own countrymen.

i started thinking about how much we focus on how americans have been hurt or killed overseas. when a plane crashes in a foreign place, we always hear about how many americans were killed. it's as if we don't care about who else died. the 'foreigners' are just as human as the americans that died. their families and friends are mourning for them. they will be missed just as much as the americans. so why don't they seem to matter near as much to us?