Been following the new war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, and it’s alarming for a lot of reasons - in a lot of ways, this really does seem the opening salvo in what might be a wider war between Russia and the west, or Russia and western interests.

But an aspect of the reporting has both fascinated and infuriated me. Because much of the focus, rightly, is on the civilian casualties; as many as 1,500 might already be dead. It’s tragic and its barbaric.

But when you look at that other war that’s gone on recently - in Iraq - the reporting has been very, very different.

In the second battle of Fallujah alone, it’s estimated that a minimum of 6,000 civilians were killed. But as this was going on, in 2004 - how much time did major media outlets spend covering the casualties? How much time did NBC’s Brian Williams - who, rightly, intoned gravely about the poor Georgians this evening on the NBC Nightly News - spend worrying about the poor dead Iraqi women and children?

War is war and when civilians are killed it isn’t terrible in one case and sad, sure, but strategically necessary in another. It is slaughter in either case, regardless of who is holding the guns, or dropping the bombs.