Two deadly tragedies were perpetrated by evil men on the other side of the world this past weekend. Probably none of us knew any of the victims. But humane Americans were shocked nonetheless by the murders of many human beings in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We recall the words of famed English writer John Donne (1572-1631), who wrote poignantly: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." We may recall those words because noted American writer Ernest Hemingway chose some of them for the title of his famed Spanish Civil War novel, "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
At any rate, we are, indeed, "involved in mankind" in troubled parts of the world.
One of our current frustrating involvements has American troops fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Last Saturday, Taliban insurgents wearing explosives-laden vests attacked an Afghan police headquarters, fired automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades - then blew themselves up. They killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens of others indiscriminately!
In a separate horror, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims - killing 36 people.
Who, indeed, knows "for whom the bell tolls" - when, and where and why?
The Iraq tragedy occurred among people visiting a noted mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Some Americans, though unfamiliar with the geography of Iraq, and perhaps not familiar with English writer William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), may recall his retelling of an ancient story of a man who encountered a woman he recognized as Death, in a Baghdad market. The man was so frightened, he mounted a horse to flee Baghdad - going to Samarra.
Asked why she had made a threatening gesture to the man, "Death" responded that she had meant no threat: "I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
In real life - and tragically in real death - Samarra was the site of the suicide bombing in Iraq on Saturday. The bomber committed his savage act in the midst of a crowd of Shiite pilgrims who had traveled to the noted al-Askari mosque. Dozens were injured, besides those who died. Some may recall the shrine's golden dome, which was destroyed in a 2006 bombing, and is being rebuilt.
These latest attacks remind us of man's sometimes lethal inhumanity to man.