A little Iraq

I'm having one of those points where the disaster of Iraq is overwhelming me. The White House often makes the point that the media tends to just highlight the large violent events (often mocked as "they never cover the good news.")

But it's not just the "good news" that's obscured by this. It's also the vast scale of the disaster. For some reason today, I'm remembering that scale. Somewhere in the details today, it hit me anew.

(AP) Maybe it was the 23 Yazidis who were separated on a bus, taken to Mosul, lined up against a wall and shot. Maybe it was the fact that this was a response to a woman being stoned to death by the Yazidis for falling in love with a Muslim.

(AP) Maybe it's the fact that in Ramadi "White flags are carried by shoppers and school children in desperate attempts to show neutrality."

(Reuters) Maybe it's that not only were 12 killed in today's headline bombing, but 95 were wounded.

(WaPo) Maybe it was in this hopeless story about the Sunnis fighting in Diyala.

(WaPo) Or, maybe it's the revelation that Gen. Petraeus frequently flies around Baghdad looking for something, anything positive to keep his hopes up.

(AP) Maybe it's that 3 more US soldiers were killed yesterday, and it's still not getting any better.