Noticed a strange trend today. If you've been following American media outlets since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Bagdad (or at least the fall of some of his statues in Bagdad), you'll hear that a large concern is looting in those parts of Iraq under US occupation. The worst thing they could press on Rumsfeld today during his press conference was the looting. Does the US have things under control? How long before they can restore order? Should they have brought more of a police-type force in sooner to prevent looting? etc.

In the middle of an illegal invasion, the important thing to focus on is property crimes. Did you see the clip of a car driving away from Iraqi government offices with two huge vases stuffed in the trunk? This is what's important to show. Not the ubiquitous photo of that kid with its head split apart. Only a week or two into the war we already have this generation's equivalent of Kim Phuc, the Vietnamese napalm victim that changed public opinion about the war. This time, you only see it on the web or on Arabic tv channels. And even if the American public saw it, they would write it off as a tragic necessity in order to liberate the rest of Iraq.