Honoring Heroes: Bring Back Pyle

As a journalism student at Indiana University during the Vietnam war protests, I spent my days in Ernie Pyle Hall. Had journalists then been more like that building's namesake, we might have won that war.

Misreading their despicable behavior then as a victory, journalists are working hard to replicate their Vietnam performance in Iraq. Why not instead be more like Ernie Pyle -- more like Michael Yon -- writing gritty dispatches about our troops in both their everyday drudgery and their periodic brave heroics?

Caspar Weinberger asks that question today in a moving op/ed in USA Today, complete with the stories of two soldiers that journalists would do well to use as their models for a new style of reporting on the war -- one that looks at our achievements and the bravery of our troops and their Iraqi allies.

It's a terrific piece. Will anyone in the media notice?