Covering the Iraq War

Catholic News Service photo from Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud, Reuters

In light of our recent "Top stories" issue, I have received a couple of letters criticizing the Herald's coverage (or lack of, they say) of the Iraq war. Do you think the Herald is credibly covering the war or do we need to do more?

One item that concerned me in the letters is that they implied that I should be condemning our military as killers of women and children. We will not demonize the entire military like that, even though there are always some bad apples in a bunch. We echo Pope Benedict's criticism of the war, but we also have many men and women who are serving our country out of a desire to bring peace. Blanketly condemning them is wrong.

The war is a mess, and it would be great if there was a solution that could get everyone home safe while also ensuring lasting peace in Iraq. But that doesn't seem to be a likely option right now. And so the Herald will keep covering the war... probably more than in the past with the presidential election coming upon us. I will also say that, while we may not have a ton of articles directly about the war, we do regularly run articles related to the military. So it's not like we're ignoring it.

So... what do you think the Herald's role is in covering the Iraq War?