I don't often post things like this, but I have been so frustrated by the coverage (or lack of it) of events in Iraq, that this video story from the BBC's Paul Wood really came across as a breath of fresh air. Wood was embedded with a part of the US invasion force (Marines) as it entered Fallujah. While the video is not particularly graphic (in a gory sense), it does have candid images of injuries and bodies, as well as some choice language.

Link to the video piece here: (streaming media) in either Windows Media or RealAudio.

Supporting web page, with more coverage from Paul Wood of the BBC.

This sort of reportage is so tense, so real, so disturbing, it really makes anything I've seen in the US pale in comparison. And the military men - they are neither idiots nor saints, they are presented as real humans with a scary job to do - how they reconcile their actions and the larger conflict is a big part of the story. Too often we in the US are presented with images of cartoonish unthinking gung-ho support, sanitized US governmental propaganda or knee-jerk anti-war hatred - how moving it is to witness the human experience in an inhuman situation. This video really comes across as the definition of Gripping, Objective Observation. US Media, take note. (Why doesn't HBO spawn an uncensored news channel? A premium news service with no ad dollars to chase or FCC rules that make second-guessing become second nature.)

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