You know, you can leave comments for me in my guestbook (see above).

Whenever I hear about "embedded" media, I think I'm hearing "in bed with," which is, in my opinion, exactly what the media is when it comes to the military at the moment. I actually think the military chose that particular term as an inside joke and the media bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

By the by, I have gotten a number of hits in the past few days from U.S. military stationed in Kuwait. Wonder why?

Chris says that the media is missing the obvious concerning the debate over whether the guy who appeared on Iraqi TV last night after the initial U.S. air strikes is actually Saddam Hussein. The guy was clearly another iteration of Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton persona.

,

I cannot for the LIFE of me figure out how to add a comment feature to my blog. I signed up for ennetation and inserted the code into my blog template as instructed, but nothing happened. If you can help and are willing, please email me at kgranju@yahoo.com.

Thanks

--Katie

There is something strange and unsettling about the up to the literal minute play-by-play interspersed with punditry that we are getting in the television war coverage. I can't put my finger on it, but it's freaky.

My father, Hank Allison, just sent me a CD with about two hours of radio coverage of the SLA/Patty Hearst shootout in L.A. in 1974. My father was a 31 year old reporter with L.A.s newsradio station, KFWB, and he was on the scene, pinned behind a car by gunfire and tear gas much of that day. He and several of his colleagues won major awards for their on-the-scene coverage. I remember that day well. I was seven years old and my mother was beside herself with worry listening to the coverage and knowing that my Dad was there. It's really fascinating for me to hear my Dad's work. He was a really good reporter.

I will sleep terribly tonight, knowing that bombs I helped pay for are dropping on homes where mothers are huddled on top of their terrified children.

They cannot leave or hide. Unlike during the London blitz, when mothers sent their children to the country to protect them, these parents have no options. There are no subway tunnels or bomb shelters to speak of. The dictator who rules them has sentenced them to certain death and our bombs will carry out the execution.

If we must invade Iraq, I believe that this "shock and awe" air assault is the least ethically defensible way to do it. We should go in on the ground, minimizing potential for civilian casualties.

I believe that Sadaam Hussein should be ousted and that Iraqis deserve a free and democratic government. I believe that there were other options to exhaust before full scale invasion. And if we must invade, we should do so as brave liberators, willing to risk a ground assault in order to avoid the thousands of civilian casualties that will result from large scale bombing from the air.

Pray for peace.

---- Katie