I think the public generally knows what is going on.

Can you say Propaganda??? We weren't even allowed to see our own casualties,while they busily played down what they like to call Collateral Damage (instead of dead and mutilated civilians).The radiation alone from depleted Uranium will ruin lives for decades,if not centuries,and there was no good reason to even USE such weapons.

This is one area in which I think it's only fair to cut the government a little slack. Any administration is going to play its cards close to the vest in time of war. Any government official is going to take the bully pulpit and try to put the best face on the situation. (Imagine FDR having said something like, Wow.. we're really screwing this one up in the middle of WWII) That being said, I wish they would be honest with me. I'm just not surprised when they aren't.

This is a joke, right? The 'media' has given us a whitewashed, sanitized version of an ugly war that has disgusted most civilized (and some uncivilized) nations.

The media in general is a poor vehicle in many respects to make informed updates on our war efforts. But the liberal media was against the war from the start and has done its best to undermine our efforts. From Jordan Easton claiming our troops target journalists, to the hyperbolic attention to the Abu Graib incident, to their distorted efforts in detail the liberal media has successfully attempted to undermined our troops, our President and America's ability to accomplish our mission.

I don't know about you guys, but I've been pretty insulted by the GWB team's constant assertions that everything is fine and dandy in Iraq, even as the deaths per month rise. Cheney's statement that the the insurgency is in its last throes would almost be comical if it wasn't such a tragic situation. It seems that the Bush administration might finally be getting the message that glib optimism in the face of rising death tolls is not appreciated - Rumsfeld predicted today that the insurgency would last 12 years - not sure where that figure came from, but at least its a glimmer that the GWB administrations doesn't consider all of us morons.