Sunday Papers

Easter Sunday is nearly finished and I have hardly made my way through the Sunday papers. It was a busy relaxed day of Mass (the church didn't fall in on me as my mother predicted), a massive supper at the homestead and looking at 37 rolls of film from the sister's wedding. All good stuff.

At least I had a chance to scan the Sunday NY Times. Some times that only takes five minutes and that's enough. Nothing jumps out and screams "read me." But today there was plenty to sink your teeth into and ponder.

Peter Maass' chilling, human story of "Good Kills" in the magazine is a must read for anyone who ever had a thought about war.

As the war in Iraq is debated and turned into history, the emphasis will be on the role of technology -- precision bombing, cruise missiles, decapitation strikes. That was what was new. But there was another side to the war, and it was the one that most of the fighting men and women in Iraq experienced, even if it wasn't what Americans watching at home saw: raw military might, humans killing humans.

Maass has an amazing skill for writing about war as a human event. If you haven't read his book about the wars in the Balkans, you need to pick up "Love Thy Neighbor."

The Times also ran a "Witnesses to War" feature from Times staffers who covered recent events in and around Iraq. One of the witnesses is my old pal Tyler Hicks and he put a few words together about his experiences to go with his amazing photographs. He was in Baghdad for the entire time.

Another old pal, Getty Images staffer Mario Tama, had a full-page cover photo on the front of the Newark Star-Ledger's special war section today. Old pal Spencer Platt, also of Getty, had a few fine shots in that as well.

Though still sad and thinking about the journalists killed covering this war, it is good to see friends well and doing some damn good work.