I've come to the conclusion that the entertainment media is clueless.

Yeah, I can just hear the response now. "Like, DOH!" I know. But it's the little things that get me.

Since September 11 th , when the US began to back our armed forces as no nation has in, well in a long time, not one single song has hit the charts about just loving the military and "military guys." Not one. I know, I listen to the "Top 40" stations. It wouldn't be that hard; modern "artists" recycle stuff all the time. Heck, I expected Britney Spears or J-Lo to recycle "I Need A Hero" or "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" by September 15 th . What would it take? Three hours in the studio and a really good producer? What, you think it would flop? Hah.

But there's other stuff. Okay, war is hell. I know that. You only have to spend a few hours by a Cuban rotting in the sun to get that clearly fixed in your cranium. But, well I think Bobby Lee said it best: "It is good that war is so terrible, else we would grow too fond of it." War is hell. But war is also cool.

I'm sorry, there's no other word to use. It's cool. It's part of the reason it happens. There's dramatic tension and desire and truly boss "stuff" all wrapped up in one hot, sweaty package. There's a reason that war movies do so well. War is cooler than football. Football is hell, too. You only have to go through one Summer Camp to know that. But we Americans really eat it up. They eat up the pain and the tragedy and the glory of football, knowing full well the cost to the players. And we could eat this war up in the same (ratings enhancing might I add) way.

Let me drop in a little piece I picked up on the net. This is from an A-10 ("Hawg") driver. I don't know who he is but he spake truth:

"But that's just my personal end... here's what else I want...I want John Madden, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, to take over CNN, NBC, ABC and every other news network, to provide coverage of this war... I want Madden, with his electronic chalkboard, out there describing what's going on... "You see here, across the top of the screen, that ridge line is exactly where the attack is gonna come from... you'll see the Warthawgs come popping over them and unleash a fury that we haven't seen since Lawrence Taylor was on the prowl...Speaking of that, here they come and BAM!!! These guys are great!... they remind me of linemen... they don't get much press coverage, but when they hit you, man do you know it!"

I guarantee that he's not the only one who wants to see that. And if you think I'm being "mean" about this or "not caring about the seriousness", let me point out that the people who are really going to eat it up are the poor sods going in harm's way. Guys like that tend to be a bit "mean-spirited." It takes a degree of "meanness" to shoot somebody.

There is a huge media opportunity here and, what is more important to me, a real "shot in the arm" to the military. There is an opportunity to show the American people what the military does, in the same way that they "learn" about football every Monday night. And there is an opportunity to send those poor bastards off in style. To let them get some the glory that is their just desserts.

So the next time you see some Marines boarding a chopper, ask yourself:

"Where're the cheerleaders? Where's the play by play?"

Those guys going into Kandahar should have been running down a line of Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and breaking out a great big American flag to cheers of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" There was no tactical reason they couldn't and no operational reason they couldn't and, trust me, the guys boarding the choppers would have ate it up.

And so would the American people.

There ought to be cheerleaders. There ought to be songs all over the radio about going in harm's way and coming home. Rick Dee's Number One should be a rap version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." There ought to be play by play and "Strike of the Day." Because that is what America does when it really cares about something.

Or do we really not care as much about our Marines as we do about football?