As the numbers of confirmed dead from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami continue to rise, it is encouraging to hear genuine humanitarian sentiments being expressed by so many Americans, including the media. Cable news channels give us hourly reports: 10,000 killed, then 12,000, and now approaching 24,000 and counting. One would almost believe there was substance to the Republican Party and media explanations of the recent election as a mandate for "moral values." But a moment's reflection reveals moral confusion, instead. That so many Americans can be truly touched by the deaths of some 24,000 southeast Asians from a natural disaster reflects a cheerier side of our humanity. But, at the same time, most Americans - and the political establishment's lapdog media - are woefully silent about the number of Iraqis killed (and maimed) not by natural forces, but by intentional, duplicitous acts of moral depravity cheered on by so many who now lament the tectonic casualties. It took a British medical journal, "The Lancet," to provide a plausible estimate of 100,000 Iraqis killed, thus far, by the machinations of morally corrupt men and women who enjoy the power to kill without having to offer explanations. The death toll from both the earthquake and the war will continue to escalate, but don't expect to see the numbers from Iraq scroll across the bottom of your television screen!