"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic."
-Joseph Stalin When figuring out how people will respond to a
foreign tragedy, it comes down to three things: location,
location, location. And TV cameras too.The September 11, 2001
homicide attacks killed about 3,000 people yet it's had more
impact on American politics and foreign policy than anything
since World War II. And to the great extent that American
foreign policy impacts the rest of the world, it had a huge
impact on international affairs as well. While 3,000 is pretty
big death toll for a single incident, there have been other wars
and attacks with greater loss of life that had a relatively
miniscule influence on American or international affairs. Why?
Because those attacks didn't occur in the heart of New York
City. The international response would've been significantly
less if the attack had been launched in Kathmandu, Bogota or
Algiers (in countries with homegrown terrorist problems).The
Asian tsunami of 2004 had a devastating effect an