Here's a glimpse into thickheaded media coverage of this war. Apparently, they're still not taking it seriously, as AP just printed this on the wire (emphasis added):

WARSAW (AP)--Two Polish reporters were abducted by armed men at a checkpoint some 130 kilometers south of Baghdad on Monday afternoon, their editors said.
Marcin Firlej, 27, a reporter for the private TVN24 news channel, and 31-year-old Jacek Kaczmarek, with Polish state radio, had set off from the town of Nasiriyah with a larger group of journalists, TVN24 editor Malgorzata Laszcz
said. They were stopped by armed Iraqis at a checkpoint near Hillah. TVN24 reporter Marcin Woroch who was in driving in another car in the same convoy, said the group was driving toward Karbala and came across the checkpoint after leaving the highway. They saw "five or six armed men, some still in military uniforms, some in black," Woroch said in a report aired Monday
afternoon by his channel
"Nobody could have expected such a situation, and also the Americans were
telling us that nothing could threaten us here," Woroch reported. The remaining
cars backed away from the checkpoint after the two men were taken, TVN24 said. Marek Lipinski, a spokesman for Polish state radio, confirmed that Kaczmarek -who was based in Kuwait but reporting in Iraq - was stopped with Firlej.
Both men carried accreditations issued by the U.S. military. Laszcz said
Firlej and the TVN24 crew were originally assigned to a U.S. unit, but they left
it on Friday and started traveling independently together with another crew from parent company TVN.

Now, here are a couple of quick checklist items I would go through, personally, before embarking on the mission:

1. You're in a warzone! Do you think there's NOTHING TO FEAR?
2. You're in a warzone! Do you think there's a CHANCE you're taking a risk, especially if...
3. You're in a warzone! And you decide to leave the military unti you're assigned to and decide to go sightseeing?

Posted By Dima (Overspill) at April 7, 2003 12:06 PM | TrackBack