Posted 7:30 AM by Paul
News Led Sleep Deprivation

I was just about to go to bed at 12.15 a.m. when I heard on the news that there was going to be a special news conference from Quatar. That would have been around 3.00 a.m. local time. Expecting someting important like the death of Saddam, a paratroop drop on Baghdad or the use of chemcial weapons stayed awake for another hour and a half.

Instead I eventually saw half of a 90 second announcement that a 19 year old woman US soldier had been rescued from a hospital by Special Forces. Talk about PR led warware! Just in time for the main news bulletins on the East Coast. Which led me to think.

- Was she being treated in the hospital? If so the Iraqis are confounding us all by being nice to POWs
- Did the Americans shoot any Iraqis in the hospital in order to get her out?
- Was the profligcy of the operation (huge resources for one life) meant to impress the Iraqis? Or just cheer up the US TV audience who are showeing signs of getting bored with the war as it has gone on longer than the Superbowl.

It is a strange world.