Thank you for the informative and insightful story. It is good to hear more specifics of what our troops (U.S.) are doing in Iraq. My husband just returned from a month-long trip to Baghdad (his first time there) and was very surprised at how different it was in reality compared to the impressions he had formed from news reports (we mostly watch MSNBC and then sometimes Fox, but never CNN). Of course, it was still dangerous there, but not nearly as much as he had expected it to be. There were children playing in the streets, etc. (He even had the opportunity to meet Peter Arnet who is reporting from Baghdad; although he doesn't agree at all with Mr. Arnet's opinion about the war, he liked meeting him.) And he was very impressed with all the U.S. troops he met--they were very professional and competent in whatever they were doing.

I'm thankful for MSNBC's editor deciding to use your story in the MSN website's headlines. It seems that news editors seem to nearly daily put up numbers of how many Americans have died in Iraq as their PRIMARY headline. I think this kind of information is important, but when used as THE headline for anything on Iraq, it gives a lop-sided impression. If the DAILY numbers for murders, gang activity and rapes and domestic violence here in Houston were reported in the national headlines, I'm sure no one would want to live or work or visit here, figuring it was a very hostile and dangerous place. So even though the information would be TRUE, reporting the headlines that way, over and over, creates an impression of the place that does not really reflect reality.

Thanks again for providing something for the news editors to round out the "picture" of Iraq that we get!