America finds war is not a video game

"Before the Iraq invasion started," Andrew Gumbel writes, "many Americans imagined the campaign in terms of Hollywood movies or the video-game abstraction of the television coverage of the first Gulf War – that virtual reality in which we drop bombs and only the enemy dies, and off-camera at that.

"But after the setbacks, guerrilla-style ambushes, downed helicopters and disturbing images of US soldiers dying or being taken prisoner over the past two days, the mood has changed abruptly."

Also see the CSM story on how media coverage of the war varies around the globe.