I, like a large portion of the world, have been pretty much glued to the news for the past few days. Being the cynical person that I am, I can't help but inherantly distrust anything that we're being allowed to hear. That's half of the fun though, don't you think?

I'm wondering if I'm alone in thinking that the reporting is ... Well, almost as much of a farce as the war they're reporting on. The dramatic intros aside, I still don't believe some of what I've seen in terms of graphics. What's up with the weaponry profiles on CNN? I feel like I should cycle through and hit "select" when I find my killing machine of choice. Do I want a scud missile or a seemingly untrustworthy helicopter? Only 6 seconds left before the game starts on whatever choice I have highlighted!

Speaking of the helicopters, I'm not sure if these are really accidents or successful Iraqi attacks (read: I don't trust the government or media to not lie to me), but either way, this isn't doing much for my personal confidence levels. Thus far, the biggest threat to the coalition forces appears to be our own incompetence. Go team.

So anyway, back to CNN. I'm more than a little dismayed at the bias I perceive in their reporting. Or maybe it's just the fact that I feel they're (either independantly or at the government's behest) giving us an extra helping of pro-war propaganda. We're getting dozens of pictures of smiling, happy citizens, shaking hands with our soldiers and gleefully ripping down pictures of Saddam Hussain. And maybe some of them are genuinely happy to see the troops. But I do feel the need to point out that if I, a human being living in a desert hut made of twigs and sand, walked outside one morning to find 10,000 heavily-armed marines with 200 tanks on my doorstep, I'd dance the Macarena on international TV if that's what I thought they wanted to see.

By the way, if I have to hear one more time that the oil wells are the "treasure of the Iraqi people" in which Bush has absolutely-no-interest-no-really-how-could-you-think-such-a-thing, I believe I shall invade my local Shell station in the interest of preserving its resources for the downtrodden folks in the Middle East. What's that quote I'm looking for? Oh yes, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

And finally, since Blair continues to be ever-so supportive of Bush and has done an excellent job of proving once and for all that England, once the mightiest nation on Earth and ruler of half the known world, has become a castrated bitch of the United States, do you think I'm asking too much to request that those individuals be referred to as BRITISH? Honestly, enough of our identity has been stripped away, must we be reduced to "Brits"? I don't know if the press think it a friendly truncation of the nationality and genuinely believe that they're inbuing their reporting with a level of familiarity and comfort, or if they're just being condescending bastards. Either way, it's rude. But I guess I can't really expect anything more of a country who felt the need to state the following: "We'll be bringing you details of the helicopter crash that killed seven coalition soldiers because one of them was an American." Even in the face of the "worldwide threat" that this "Coalition of the Willing" have banded together to combat, we see that, at its heart, it's really all about the Americans.

Isn't everything?