Now for the bad news

I tend to wake early and by 6 am someone here has the morning network show, Sunrise, on the TV. For the most part I ignore, but five minutes before it ended today, at 8 am, there was a newsflash: An incident has occurred in Iraq involving Australian soldiers. A media conference is scheduled in 30 minutes.

Now honestly, that signals some pretty hard news at the tail of the country’s most respected morning show. An hour later, after the media conference had been shifted several times, I went to the SMH. The news?

Bomb injures Australian troops Two Australian soldiers have been wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Iraq, the Defence Department said today.

The injured men were from the Australian Overwatch Battle Group West and were on patrol on a road north of the town of An Nasariyah in Dhiqar Province yesterday.

A department news release said the ASLAV vehicle they were driving in was "extensively damaged and destroyed by a subsequent fire''.

Following my North American experience I full expected a number of deaths. What can you say about a combatant country that still reports injuries as major news? I simply offer as a reflection.