What if the media wasn't in Iraq?

Good question! What if the media wasn't in Iraq just like in DS/DS '90-91", Would this war be over? I still feel guilt, we should have completed the mission in '91! However, G. Bush Sr. said, " We are not mercineries, pull back!" It was over! I still feel some guilt for our sons...., going over there, when we as Desert Storm Marines should have finished the job the 1st time around!
You only try to do what you told! Semper Fi!

What if the media wasn't in Nam?

Isn't this the first time we had reporters embedded with the troops? I do not watch mainstream news but are the reporters still embedded?

No, it's not the 'first time' reporters have been embedded. Reporters travelled with troops, and have done so, since wars began.

In WWI, the Marines 'got all the credit' complained the army, because of having a reporter in the ranks at Belleau Wood! An early attempt at the 'pool' system, General Pershing basically didn't want individual units mentioned 'by name' for morale reasons. When a reporter got his story out (by some back channel) Pershing was highly PO'd! But by then it was too late LOL.

Hemingway and others started or enhanced their literary careers by doing 'war reporting' in the Spanish Civil War.

Ernie Pyle, probably the most famous WWII reporter, did the 'embed' thing, (and lost his life), but plenty of other reporters did the same thing.

A famous photog in Korea was killed in action (female I believe but the name escapes me) doing the 'embed' thing.

Vietnam was sort of the war that broke that mold, there was a 'pool' system most of the time and very little of the 'embed' thing. One notable exception was Joe Galloway at Ia Drang.

During Grenada, the press was basically kept out of the whole thing, same goes with Lebanon, unless they were guys like Jim Webb, and trusted by the military.

Desert Storm saw the 'pool' system, which the media *****ed about big time.

So, now we've sort of come full circle, with the 'embed' thing that has come back...

My problem with the mainstream media is their lack of vision. They go out of their way to find problems. Here in Joisey they ran a story about two Army captains in Hawaii who had committed adultery. The same month saw several Silver Stars and Navy Crosses awarded-I know this, thanks to this site. Any kind of real or imagined negative event in the Armed Forces is given coverage. The concept of "heroism" does not exist in the mainstream media. The local papers are different and better.
Semper Fi,
Eric