The National Post:
The weekend news coverage offers a good example. According to analysts at Toronto's Mackenzie Institute, there has been more ground covered by the coalition in the first 100 hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom, with fewer casualties suffered and fewer prisoners of war yielded, than in the 100 hours, total, of the ground portion of Operation Desert Storm. Nearly a full division of coalition forces has already closed within artillery range of the Iraqi capital. Israel has not been drawn into the war. The rockets launched by Saddam Hussein were knocked out of the sky by Patriot missiles. Almost all of southern Iraq's oil wells have been captured intact.
In previous wars, such good news likely would have been the main story. But instead, the tiny tragedies that inevitably punctuate even the most successful operation of this scale became the big news of the day. So while the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division roared north on Sunday night, much of the world watched as U.S. Marines crouched behind a berm in the port city of Umm Qasr observing an Iraqi position 400 metres away. In military terms, the action was mundane: For 90 minutes, the Americans assessed who was in the building, then called in a fighter jet to bomb the stronghold. The engagement followed standard operating procedure, involved no allied casualties and was over in short order. But it was reported live to the world as a "setback." Apparently, that label now covers any operation that spans more than two commercial breaks.
