Back to the War

This evening I returned to blogging with a few jokes. But there was no joy in returning to the war on tv after a brilliant, joyous, mostly war-free day on the Jersey Shore.

Back in the flat in Jersey City, the laptop and the tv light up, connect to the world and the war floods into the bedroom once again.

Straight away, I went looking for news about friends Moises Saman and Matthew McAllester. They are the Newsday staffers in Baghdad who haven't been heard from since last Monday. Their newspaper thinks the Iraqi government may have them. And the families of both journalists have asked the Rev. Jesse Jackson to help locate the lads and secure their release.

Old pal Vincent Laforet, a NY Times staff shooter stationed on the USS Abraham Lincoln, sent me this good thought about Moises:

Hey Jim - let's hope Moises is stuck somewhere with a case of some type of alcohol. I'm thinking good thoughts for him and Matthew.

I am thinking good thoughts for them as well. All the time.

Looking through the wires I was happy to see that some other missing journalists have been heard from.

But then there was that Brit tv journo killed in a freak fall from a hotel roof in northern Iraq. And a couple Israeli journalists are claiming that U.S. troops have been mistreating reporters.