Sharon asks why the BBC would include the detail about the wounded girl arriving at the hospital in her party dress. Well, duh.

Sharon, dear, think about how the news business works. American bomb falls on little Afghan girl. That, sadly, is not news. American bomb falls on little Afghan girl wearing party dress. Aha, now that's the kind of horrific detail that will get people's attention. Run that story.

In any case, is it such a bad thing for us Americans to be reminded that when bombs are dropped, some land on children? Our revenge for 9/11 comes at a terrible price, and in fact we all knew this when we lined up behind President Bush as he ordered our forces into action. We knew that collateral damage would occur, i.e., that innocents would be maimed and killed by accident as we exacted our revenge. I don't see how pointing out the obvious makes CNN somehow unobjective in their reporting.

This is not to say that firing guns into the air when there are American bombers in the vicinity is a bright idea. Those people should be nominated for a Darwin award.

Then again, the primate brain is fairly small, and has room for at most one thought. Shoot gun, now. Make big noise. Express joy, yes. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. But the little girl in the news story was surely not the one pulling the trigger, and it is not a breach of objectivity for CNN to point that out. She's an innocent victim, no matter where you think the blame lies.

We humans are rather a hopeless lot. Americans are no better or worse than our English-speaking "GUEST", who for all we know may be from a country with an equally spotty record in the matter of Afghanistan.

The fact is, we've been soaking the earth with each other's blood ever since we figured out that it was possible. I don't see any hope that this will change, whether the United States remains dominant or some new power rises, or we all just fall into anarchy.

I won't be waving any flags today, or spouting off about just causes. But I *will* remember that little girl as I change my son's diaper tonight. My family won the geographic lottery, that's all.