Sinan Antoon on Karrada

"Many Iraqis were also bitter about a world whose solidarity and empathy are largely restricted and reserved for victims in the West, where terrorist attacks are framed as assaults on humanity and elicit immediate, collective grief. The death of Iraqi civilians at the hands of terrorists has been normalized. In May, a string of bombings killed more than 200 people. Dozens more have died in terrorist attacks in Baghdad since the Karrada bombing. According to the Mercer Quality of Living Survey, Baghdad is one of the world’s least-safe cities, alongside Damascus, Syria."