Realities Of War
Thoughts from Bob Schieffer.
We are dispensing with our commentary this morning to bring you the latest news on our ABC News colleague Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt. As we reported earlier this morning, Doug and Bob were seriously injured while traveling with troops of the 4th Infantry Division near Taji. That is about 12 miles north of Baghdad. As has happened so often in Iraq, their vehicle was hit by a landmine, what the military calls an IED, and improvised explosive device. About all we really know is that both are in serious condition.
Bob is a lawyer who speaks Chinese. He got his first taste of news working as a translator for Dan Rather and the CBS News team during the Tiananmen Square crisis in Beijing. He said later that when he realized there was a job that existed in this world where he could be in the middle of world events and actually get paid for it, he decided to change careers. He abandoned his law practice, moved his family to a small town to learn his craft and eventually made his way to the top rungs of journalism.
In this electronic age, war has become so familiar that it is easy to forget that it is more than just pictures on television. But the soldiers who fight it and the correspondents who cover it do not forget. They know it is a dangerous business, and yet they are willing to risk that danger.
Wars are not fought on the training ground nor can they be covered from a TV studio. They are not reality shows, they are reality. Young men and women have to fight them and correspondents have to cover them if we are to understand what they are about. Our thoughts and prayers today are with the families of both these brave men.
By Bob Schieffer