The Vietnam Effect

Here's a story that indicates just how much progress we've made in the last thirty years.

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam, media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Sunday.

Since U.S. forces and its allies launched their campaign in Iraq on March 20, 2003, 66 journalists and their assistants have been killed, RSF said.

The latest casualty was a Reuters Television soundman who was shot dead in Baghdad on Sunday, while a cameraman with him was wounded and then detained by U.S. soldiers.

The death toll in Iraq compares with a total of 63 journalists in Vietnam, but which was over a period of 20 years from 1955 to 1975, the Paris-based organization that campaigns to protect journalists said on its Web site.

Maybe we shouldn't have journalists in a war zone? Of course, such a suggestion is far too common sensical to register in the minds of journalists.

Honestly. And please note, folks, that after two and a half years, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq is still about forty-six thousand less than the number of American soldiers killed in Vietnam (by conservative estimates regarding Vietnam KIAs). "Iraq" is not Arabic for "Vietnam" in any way, shape, or form, and it would be nice if "journalists" began to understand that, instead of trying to use their power of the pen to try and make it so.