I am wonder why people are shocked at the 60,000 deaths from

[FloridaPat]

the tsunami, but don't even blink an eye at the 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. People here at work are every concerned and upset. They are amazed what God would allow happen or what Mother Nature does. But no concerns about what people do to people.

[Worst Username Ever]

1. 80,000

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/asia.quake/index.html

[Democrats_win]

2. Suddenness causes shock

Even in these Indian Ocean countries, the military caused many more deaths over the years.

[LoZoccolo]

3. I was the same way about the Abu Ghraib torture.

I couldn't figure out why people were so shocked about that when they had no compunctions about killing children.

[heretheycome]

4. you kind of answered your own question

There are those who believe in the war in Iraq, but don't understand that innocent civilians are being killed. Therefor they are not mentioned. As far as American soldiers are concerned, yes we are outraged and yes we are trying to help in our own way as civilians and we are forcing our government to send over fully armed vehicles. How sad that is that it wasn't done in the beginning is for another post.

What happened with the tsunami effected everyone in the world. I heard 70% of the deaths were from vacationers all around the world.
War is death and we seem to accept that. Mother Nature we view, in this case a horrible act that could happen to any of us.

To sum this up, war does not effect all, but mother nature does

[WebeBlue]

5. The contrasting reactions are amazing, eh?

Nature's destruction and carnage as opposed to mankind's destruction and carnage. Nature being a bit hard to tame and control, so is it the "out of control" feeling. Mankind's very deliberate and controlled destruction with it's "in control" sense. I don't know, speculating here, but yes, I'm, of course, astonished at the lives taken in the tsunami but way more astounded at the deliberate killing of 100,000 in Iraq..by our own, in deliberate actions. Yet way more astounding is the (generally speaking) American public chooses to embrace the war rather than be horrified by it and that is what I cannot wrap my mind around....

[49jim]

6. It's because the TV, CNN, MSNBC......

is showing it every 5 seconds......you just don't "see" any of the civilian deaths on TV from Iraq. That's what lead to the end of Vietnam War....people saw it on the nightly news every night!

[rman]

7. There are even more people dying as a result

of exploitation by radical capitalism - pretty much on our behalf - but that gets even less attention in the media then the deaths in Iraq.