Above the fold on page 1 of the print New York Times, and prominent on the Times home page, is this story about a Marine who was killed in Iraq on July 1. The 21-year-old Marine, Corporal Travis J. Bradach-Nall, was killed while clearing land mines.

Please remember this when you read (for example, here) that 49 American troops have died in combat since Bush's May 1 "mission accomplished" photo op. Corporal Bradach-Nall presumably isn't counted among those who died in combat, but he sure as hell didn't die in a way that could have happened to him back home. (The Times story does note that since May 1 "more than 100 service members have died since then, either in continued fighting, accidents, ambushes or on reconstruction tasks," but it's an exception among recent Iraq stories in the U.S. media.)

Also, please note in the Times story that Corporal Bradach-Hall's mother was and is a liberal Democrat and an opponent of the war. She loved her son, though, and the feeling was mutual -- incomprehensible as that may seem to the members of the Defense Policy Board or the staff of The Weekly Standard.