Until recently, the only knowledge that I had of war was from what I read in history books. While such sources provide a detailed summary of the events of wars, they are unable to recreate the sentiment that surrounds them. Therefore, to the majority of teenagers today, war is an entirely new experience, and in my opinion an experience that few would have predicted.

How can guns be blazing and bombs be being dropped while we continue our daily lives and routines without interruption? I, for one, feel little pain and grievance due to the fact that as far as the media has made out, U.S. casualties are minimal and Iraqi soldiers flee at mere sight of U.S. troops. As a result, the question arises: are the violent conflicts that we have been taught about solely the property of history books, or is there an aspect of this war that is not being relayed to us?

The answer, although obvious after a little research, should be prominent at first glance of a web site like cnn.com. The front page is scattered with headlines relating to the war, from the reconstruction of Iraq to the present fighting. It becomes difficult to see the negative effects of war when the company primarily stresses the insurmountable power of coalition forces with headlines like "British vow to beat Basra resistance," and "U.S.: Baghdad surrounded." The most prominent news relating to soldiers was that regarding prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, which soon after turned out to glorify U.S. troops and Lynch’s rescue.

Even when the U.S. does suffer casualties, usually only a simple statistic is provided. For example, during a raid on a mosque in central Baghdad U.S. troops faced strong resistance. In CNN’s coverage of the fighting, however, the only mention of setbacks was "One U.S. Marine was killed and 22 others were wounded in fighting Thursday." The rest of the article focused on comments from U.S. captain Frank Thorp like "It’s not over until the regime is gone and until the people of Iraq are away from the grip of fear and torture they have." By receiving so little attention, soldiers are depicted more as toys in a game than humans fighting for their life and those of others.

To this hour, I have encountered few web-sites that provide the whole picture. BBC news is one. One might argue that Al-Jazeera provides a view free of coalition influence, but that is not to say that it is not influenced by the Arab world. BBC, given its British background, obviously acclaims coalition success, but also provides details of its failures. On Sunday, April 6, for example, BBC reporter John Simpson reported that a U.S. plane, on route to destroy an Iraqi tank, mistakenly released bombs on American and Kurdish soldiers, with whom Simpson was traveling. At least ten people were killed as a result, including a BBC translator, Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed. While the story prompted scandal in Europe, on CNN.com the headline was posted at the bottom of a list of stories in a spotlight box, making it barely visible.

How are we to truly understand the effects of war if they are not relayed to us by the media? By this I am not saying that I believe we should constantly be presented with violent news. Rather, we should simply be made aware of it. How will people ever learn to live in peace if they never appreciate the effects of war? From text books? In my eyes, only responsible journalistic coverage can convey the reality of the issue.