They are parking car bombs outside of little girls’ schools.

Sooner or later, they will be coming here.

I’m sorry, I know Memorial Day Weekend is a time to honor and remember those who have died in our country’s service, but perhaps we would be better-served looking ahead even as we look back.

The almost-daily sectarian carnage going on in Iraq has pretty much ceased to be front-page news. The reason is that in order to be worthy of the front page, something has to be out of the ordinary.

For all the billions and billions of dollars we’ve spent over there and — more importantly — the more than 1,600 American lives lost, we don’t seem to care very much about what happens to the Iraqis.

We didn’t much care when Saddam Hussein was murdering them and we don’t much care when the Shiites and Sunnis kill each other.

Oh, what a terrible thing to say. Certainly we care.

Sure, we do.

How much air time have the television networks and especially the cable stations devoted to the Michael Jackson trial compared with what they’ve reported on the atrocities in Iraq?

The sick saga of one of the most screwed-up people on the planet is deemed far more worthy of attention because the TV folks fervently (and accurately) believe that’s what Americans prefer to see.

(By the way, I’m proud that this newspaper has covered the Jackson mess primarily with news briefs while running far-more-lengthy daily stories about Iraq.)

What scares me is that it’s only a matter of time until we become very, very interested in car-bombings and suicide attacks on the innocent, because they will be happening here.

Last month, nine Shiite Muslims were killed when a suicide car bomber detonated explosives as worshippers were leaving a mosque in Baghdad.

If Muslim fanatics will bomb mosques filled with fellow Muslims, they are not likely to have any compunction about bombing churches and synagogues in the United States or Europe.

Right here is where you’ll read the obligatory paragraph stating that the vast majority of Muslims are good, law-abiding people who don’t commit acts of senseless violence and that people of other religions also have been known to murder and maim.

I don’t mind stating that at all, because it happens to be true.

But it’s the mindless, cruel, heartless tiny minority that scares me.

• Like the suicide bomber who blew himself up in March at a funeral in a Shiite mosque, murdering 47 people.

• Like the monsters who just this past Tuesday loaded a car with explosives and parked it opposite the Dijlah Junior High School for Girls in a Baghdad Christian neighborhood. Six bystanders were killed.

• Like the men shown on Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera last month after a commercial helicopter with 11 people aboard was shot down. One crew member survived the crash, said one of his legs was broken and asked the insurgents for help. He was told to walk away. After waiting for a cameraman to get the limping man in focus, the order was given to gun him down. They kept shooting, even after he fell to the ground.

"We are applying God’s law," a voice said in Arabic.

• Like the murderers who have killed at least 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics in recent weeks.

The Associated Press reports that just since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government, at least 89 car bombs have gone off in Iraq, killing at least 355 people.

In that same time period, five suicide bombers wearing explosives have killed an additional 107 people.

So with no dearth of potential suicide bombers, how long do we think it will be until the fanatics decide to bomb buses, houses of worship and junior highs here in America?

It was one thing when it was happening in Israel, where those resilient, suffering people have been forced to live in a siege environment. Now, car bombs are going off — among other places — in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The United States, with its vast targets of opportunity, will one day become an irresistible lure to those evil people for whom the ends justify the means.

We spend so much time and treasure trying to prevent the next 9/11. I fear the real danger will be on a far-less-grand scale when we won’t be able to feel safe boarding a bus in our own neighborhoods.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope it never happens. But if I’m right, that’s when the war on terror will really hit home.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.