Keep in mind that this war began only three years ago, after more than 20 years of peace. Vietnam followed close on the heels of Korea, which started only five years after VJ Day; parents in those days really understood what full-blown war meant.

Also, the British and American forces are deploying only professional soldiers and reservists, not conscripts. So middle-class British and American parents are not seeing the army pluck their young adult children willy-nilly out of their workplaces and classrooms; anyone who is going to Iraq has at some point entered voluntarily into a contract that included the possibility of going to war.

I think those facts have some impact on the media approach to reporting, and on the level of public indignation.