Iraqi Deaths Continue, But Get Less Notice

Abu Ghraib, once a symbol of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny and later of the darkest hour of the US occupation of Iraq, is the latest symbol of how the nation and media now treat death there, Anthony Shadid writes in the Washington Post. 33 people died there Tuesday in a suicide explosion and the chaotic gunfire that followed, but the attack gained little attention.

Casualties got play when they symbolized America’s looming failure. Not so “when America and its Iraqi allies seem to be winning,” Shadid notes. “Hundreds of people still die every month, even as a sense of the ordinary returns.” Relatives of Tuesday’s victims expressed rage and sorrow. “No one values the victims anymore,” said one. “We won’t forget,” pledged another. (More Iraq war stories.)