Equivalence

in the early evening on Wednesday, the 27th of August 2003 by Chad

Worldwide Faith News has this press release where The Peacemaking Program of the Presbyterian Church sends their condolences to the UN over the terrorist bombing of their Baghdad headquarters.

The Rev. Marian McClure, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division, sent an official letter of condolence last week to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

“I am keenly aware of the shock you must be experiencing over the bombing of the United Nations Office in Baghdad, and the grief over the death of your special envoy, Dr. S. Vieria De Mello, and many others,” McClure wrote. “… The world mourns this great loss, and we of the Presbyterian Church (USA) profoundly share your grief.

“We send our sincere condolences to the families and continue in prayer for comfort in their sorrow, and for recovery and healing for the surviving victims of this awful tragedy.”

I agree, I do feel sorry that those people were killed. This is another group of people that will only return to their families one last time in the worst of circumstances.
However, (and there is always a however in blogging!) it included this statement:

The Rev. Jennifer Butler, Director of the Presbyterian United Nations Office in New York City, said sadness and grief were palpable in the U.N. headquarters building after the bombing, which also injured scores of people.

“In talking to U.N. staff, I’m realizing that this was their 9/11, a catastrophic event,” she said, ” - and symbolic in terms of U.N. work.”

This is one of those, Oh.My.God.Did.She.Really.Make.This.Is.Stupid.Statement times.
This was not their 9/11. Comparing the deaths of 3000+ people being killed in their normal lives in a suprise attack vs. 20+ killed in a relatively active war zone. That is some pretty disgusting moral equivalence. Its almost to the point of saying that the car accident I was in was soooo catastrophic, that its just like 9/11. People are still dead that *shouldn’t* be however it is orders of magnitude different.
The equivalent of the UN bombing would be more like a normal Tuesday in Israel during the Intifada. But that wouldn’t be politically correct to say stuff like that, now would it!