April 18 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq as of 1000 GMT on Wednesday:

* denotes new or updated item.

* BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed 10 people and wounded 15 in the predominantly Shi’ite district of Karrada in central Baghdad, police said.

* BAGDHAD - A bomb inside a minibus killed two people and wounded five near al-Shurja in central Baghdad, police said.

* BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two policemen and wounded four, including two civilians, near Baghdad, police said.

* TAJI - One insurgent was killed and eight others were detained during two raids near Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

* BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers discovered a cache of nitric acid during a raid on a warehouse in eastern Baghdad on April 12, the U.S. military said. The nitric acid, which can used in manufacturing explosives, was stored in 600 five-gallon containers. Three people were detained in the raid.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 25 people were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

Sadly more….

That makes 40 dead, just in this part of the listing. The number is actually closer to 85. Dead. In one day. [Actually, now it’s 157. In Baghdad, alone.]

Why is our empathy for the families of these dead less — by orders of magnitude– than for the families of the Virginia Tech dead?

Sure, we are going to feel more strongly about our own families and friends and those in near proximity than for those far away or those we do not know. But for most of us the families in Blacksburg, Virginia are no closer than those of Iraq. They are not closer in a cultural sense than the 3,311 US soldiers dead in Iraq — and yet sadness and grief seems to permeate the air for those in Blacksburg. Bare acknowledgment will do for the others.

Maybe there’s an answer for this Everest to Sahara misproportion buried deep in the human psyche. Maybe, however, it’s the way we are brought up, in a kind of communal narcissism –regarding some as more innocent than others; some as more appropriate targets of death than others; some as less human than others….

I don’t have an answer but the question is pounding away at me. I keep thinking, this is a riddle worth solving.

Though of course empathy and tears, if not followed by analysis and understanding, education and change of behavior, are merely orgasmic relief for those who have sensed the brush of death from sufficient distance.