We should toast the reporters who are staying behind to cover the war

President George W. Bush has suggested that journalists should be pulled out of Baghdad. You may ask what business it is of his. On the other hand, perhaps he knows better than most of us what is likely to happen to the Iraqi capital over the next few days and weeks. There has been talk of Saddam Hussein and the Republican Guard making a last stand there, and drawing coalition troops into a fight for the city which they might not easily win. Fanciful comparisons have been made with Stalingrad. Even if there is no conflagration, Allied aircraft are expected to target government buildings with ‘precision bombs’. We can recall from the assault on Belgrade during the Kosovo war that these bombs are not always as precise as they are cracked up to be.

Editors and foreign editors are therefore faced with a problem. Do they ask their journalists to remain in Baghdad under the watchful eye of the Iraqi ministry of information, facing risks which, though difficult to quantify, may be considerable? News organisations are split down the middle.