When a young man's shooting rampage left 33 people dead on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday, Americans were in shock. The massacre filled the entire half-hour of NBC's Nightly News. Entire hour-long episodes of Dateline NBC and CBS's 48 Hours were devoted solely to covering the tragedy. The Web sites of major U.S. media outlets, such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN, have been dominated by coverage of the shooting. We see photos and biographical sketches of the victims, and the grief is palpable.

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP

Today, 166 people so far have died in attacks in Baghdad, with 119 killed in just one marketplace bombing alone. But Americans aren't stopped in their tracks. As with previous marketplace bombings, today's tragedy merits only a quick acknowledgment in the news, and then it's on to more important concerns like Sanjaya on American Idol.