Unimaginable

Americans really need to hear stuff like this more:

Day-to-day life here for Iraqis is so far removed from the comfortable existence we live in the United States that it is almost literally unimaginable.

It's almost impossible to describe what it feels like being stalled in traffic, your heart pounding, wondering if the vehicle in front of you is one of the three or four car bombs that will go off that day. Or seeing your husband show up at the door covered in blood after he was kidnapped and beaten.

I don't know a single family here that hasn't had a relative, neighbor or friend die violently. In places where there's been all-out fighting going on, I've interviewed parents who buried their dead child in the yard because it was too dangerous to go to the morgue.

Imagine the worst day you've ever had in your life, add a regular dose of terror and you'll begin to get an idea of what it's like every day for a lot of people here.

This may be anecdotal, but the disconnect between the horror on the ground in Iraq and the understanding of that horror in this country seems to grow wider with each passing day. The only time there seems to be any palpable unease is when US troops start getting killed with more frequency. What everyday Iraqis have to endure doesn't seem to be on anybody's radar. I don't know about you, but I find that myopia disgusting.

(via atrios)