We're here in the National Press Club and so it's appropriate to ask a question about the role of the media, and I think, Michael Ware, I'll direct this to you although ask others for comment. The questioner writes, "Two clear differences between the Afghan war --" to which I referred initially -- "and Iraq are found in the media environment. For one thing, we are almost two decades along in the 24-hour news cycle, and there are competing news outlets distributed worldwide in that cycle, like al-Jazeera, that we didn't have before. Do these factors actually make events more combustible or do they shorten the story arc and cut short the impact of any given set of events?"

Well, I think they do all those things. I mean, one, it helps inform much quicker, much more readily. I mean, goodness gracious, I've been in combat with US soldiers and we've learned things off the radio or off CNN in the DFAC or the chow hall before we've received orders from above. So there's a certain sense of real-time that helps inform all of us.

Yes, it can also be inflammatory, even if it's true -- the way it's handled or the timing of its release.

Nonetheless, overshadowing all of these: please...it's the internet.

I mean, if you want your kind of news, you don't have to watch CNN or even al-Jazeera. You know the website to go to. You know where you download your videos. You know where you can get what you want. I mean, you know...these are markets. And the markets know what they want and they know where to go and get it.

And don't forget, you know, there's a lot of criticism of the media about Iraq in terms of the good news, the bad news, blah blah blah blah blah. Well -- A -- unlike any conflict I have ever been in, I've never been hunted. There's no sense of journalistic objectivity or neutrality. You're not an observer. Under the guidelines of every insurgent or militia group -- and I've been with all of them: I've dealt with the Quds Force of Iran, I've dealt with Jaish al-Mahdi, I've dealt with the Badr Brigade, I've dealt with al Qaeda in Iraq, I've dealt with Ansar al-Islam, Ansar al-Sunna, I've dealt with Brigades of 1920 Revolution -- I can rattle them off, and under all of their targeting guidelines, journalists fit fairly and squarely as legit targets. Either because we're part of the problem or because our propaganda value is so great that it outweighs all else.

And at the end of the day, none of the actors in these things need us any more. They don't need us to get their message out. They think we distort it, whether it's the US Public Affairs officer who goes nuts because he doesn't think that the general was shown in the right light or you showed his bad side or whether it's al Qaeda, who doesn't think that you were damning enough of the Americans or that you downplayed their casualties. Because they have their own delivery systems.

The world has changed.