Editorial: What gets covered, what goes unnoted

Last week's Iraq news coverage can be summarized in two words: Moqtada al-Sadr.

The press repeatedly demonstrated that they still care about Iraq -- or at least some aspects of it.

While Moqtada was the name you couldn't escape,Jose Cintron Rosado and Jose Delgado Arroya were two names that few heard of.

Sunday "Sgt. Jose M. Cintron Rosado, 38, of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico; and Spc. Jose A. Delgado Arroyo, 41, of San Juan, Puerto Rico" were killed in an Iraq attack.

They didn't get write ups galore or TV segments.

Moqtada al-Sadr most likely has a long, long life ahead of him. The two Joses lives ended.

It's really amazing what the press runs with and what it ignores.

One of the few in the press remembering the dead last week was Laurie Roberts (Arizona Republic):

It's likely you haven't thought of it in awhile, what with the holidays and getting life back to normal this week. Mary Cordova reminded me that not everybody's life has returned to normal. She's the chaplain for American Legion Post 41's auxiliary unit. Every month, the group meets on the first Thursday and she opens the meeting with remembrance of U.S. soldiers who died the previous month in Afghanistan and Iraq. She lights a candle and announces the name, age and hometown of each one, then says a prayer. It's nothing fancy, just a few minutes time out of a month to remember that we are at war -- that good men and women are dying and that families across this nation are grieving. Even if the rest of us have moved on.