Ralph Peters: Press 1, Troops 0

Full article (here).

Today, the Newseum - a 250,000-square-foot homage to journalism that cost $450 million to build - opens on Pennsylvania Avenue, midway between the White House and the Capitol.

What's wrong with this picture?

Other than the (symbolic?) fact that the building's an architectural mishmash, it's this: There's no museum in the vicinity of the National Mall dedicated to our military.

Tells you a lot about the vanity and priorities of today's governing and informational "elite," doesn't it? Ignore the blood, enshrine the ink. A Pulitzer Prize outranks a Congressional Medal of Honor.

I don't really begrudge journalists their we-love-us monument. Massive egos need a massive building (total of 643,000 sq. ft., including a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant). But isn't something fundamentally wrong when there's plenty of donor funding available for a museum glorifying those who cover our wars, but not a cent to tell the stories of those who fight them?

Having served in our Army for more than two decades, followed by a decade's adjunct membership in the media, I have to tell my new colleagues to get a grip: You are not the story.