Wow. Heros indeed.

I'm reminded of a line one of my fictional heroes once uttered, Col. Andy Tanner, USAF (aka Powers Boothe in "Red Dawn").

Something to the effect, that's the real war you see out there. And it's here every day.

(Regardless of whether or not the media pays any attention).

BTW, a side note: I still think one of the greatest media moments of the television age was that live, full-motion (i.e., not a videophone) ITN footage of the Marines fighting at Um Qasr a few days into the war in March 2003. I don't remember ever being quite as engaged in something I was watching than during the (many) hours I watched the operations, into the wee hours of the night, flipping between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox.

For the first time ever, the general public could watch a military operation unfold in real time. For one, it was fascinating-- you could see hours of boredom matched with moments of panic, and see the incredible professionalism of our armed forces in action.

More importantly, I sat in terror for hours, just waiting for somebody to get his head blown off on camera.

At that moment, I realized that, if it's this stressful to watch, I simply had no idea how stressful it must be to *do*. No matter how many times you watch Saving Private Ryan or Blackhawk Down, nothing quite compares to the informative power of live television.

Sadly, the MSM now ignores the war in Iraq, except to report shoddy analysis, or show burned out cars in Fallujah. We'd all be much better served to return to the reporting of March 2003.

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. Oh, of course, the flip side to the embeds was highlighted by Um Qasr as well-- this was a pissant little op, one op out of hundreds, but the fact that it looked so hard on television made a lot of people start to panic about "quagmire" and "guerrilla war." Uh, news flash MSM: *all* war is hard when you look at it up close. It's only quick and easy when it's nicely wrapped up by the time you leave the theater.

these guys are great, though my favorite footage is a scene where a soldire (not sure if GI or marine) yelling at the imbed cameraman. "sir, the chaplain has picked up a gun, if they get any closer, you might want to drop that camera..... " these guys perform under pressure that I can't even imagine. Where do we get such men. God Bless the men who serve and God bless America.