I wasn't talking about you, was I? Or maybe you figure you're part of the "cultural elite." I don't know.

My thesis is that many on the Left and their media cohorts are mostly creeped-out by the military, and are comfortable with discussing people in the military in one of only two aspects:

- Lt. Calley-type sadistic dope-smoking, prisoner-torturing, baby-killing monsters. The media LOVES these stories.

- Helpless and ignorant dupe of evil American policies (probably with a low level of education, hard up for employment and probably a minority.) Fighting and dying for nothing, confused and unaware of why they are there.

A large number of news stories in the mainstream media plug the soldiers into one of these two categories. Look for yourself.

I have noticed that anything that smacks of military heroism really seems to bother them, and they expend great efforts in trying to find the "feet of clay" of the supposed heroes. There are a lot of examples of this, too. The most recent one would be the Tillman case. Or Jessica Lynch.

On the other hand, if you sweep past CBS, the New York Times and Washington Post, and look at small local papers and the like, you are talking a completely different view. That's where you have to go to read about the heroes.