With all the vileness that is spouted about American and coalition forces let's reflect for a moment on the following:


This is Major Mark Bieger, he is holding a young Iraqi victim of a so-called "Martyrdom" operation (as the "insurgents" [read: "terrorist bastards"] call it)

As Michael Yon wrote when he posted the photo he took

Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it.
I snapped this picture when Major Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug her.The soldiers went back to that neighborhood the next day to ask what they could do. The people were very warming and welcomed us into their homes, and many kids were actually running up to say hello and to ask soldiers to shake hands. Eventually, some insurgents must have realized we were back and started shooting at us. The American soldiers and Iraqi police started engaging the enemy and there was a running gun battle. I saw at least one IP who was shot, but he looked okay and actually smiled at me despite the big bullet hole in his leg. I smiled back. One thing seems certain; the people in that neighborhood share our feelings about the terrorists. We are going to go back there, and if any terrorists come out, the soldiers hope to find them. Everybody is still very angry that the insurgents attacked us when the kids were around.
Their day will come.

Why doesn't the "Main stream media" report more on stories like this? A search on news.google.com today for "Major Mark Bieger " with no date restrictions shows a link to a total of five news sites. That's right. FIVE. Searching for "Michael Yon" (the photographer) still with no date restrictions brings up another thirty. Searching for "Shiite protest Iraq" published just today brings up four hundred and eighty five listings. Why doesn't the "main stream media" tell us of the successes in Iraq instead of emphasing the struggles?

"If it bleeds, it leads" is a tired and hackneyed phrase used to describe the media's obsession with violence, and the mistaken belief amongst editors and publishers that only sensationalism and pain sell news. I think a better phrase for our modern "free press" though is "If it makes the U.S. look bad in Iraq, push it like a peddler selling crack"