Cheap blood

Listened to NPR story "Flight From Syria: A Photographers Story," which included this line:

BLOCK: Let me ask you this, William. I spoke with one of the Syrian activists, Abu Bakr, who was in that same house where the two journalists were killed and where Edith Bouvier was injured and he said this. He said Syrian blood is so cheap and he talked about the thousands of Syrians who had been massacred, but that it took the deaths of these two Western journalists to really get the attention of the international community. 

I wonder, as somebody who was there at the time, as a Western journalist, what you think about that. 

DANIELS: Yeah, I agree. I really agree. That's why we think now, we must talk about what's happening there. But yes, this man is right. The Syrian blood costs much less than other blood.