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Kamber + Arango, “4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images,” NYT (26 July ’08):

News organizations say that such restrictions are one factor in declining coverage of the war, along with the danger, the high cost to financially ailing media outlets and diminished interest among Americans in following the war. By a recent count, only half a dozen Western photographers were covering a war in which 150,000 American troops are engaged.

The Pentagon’s shrill policy of micromanaging journalists began as an effort to reduce media coverage to propaganda. Over time, the thicket of red tape and arbitrary administration chased away more and more journos. As the amount of press coverage declined, the war seemed more marginal; the more marginal the war seems, the less support it attracts. And as the Pentagon starts to think about pulling out, this vicious cycle may not look so bad.

Different constituencies can support a policy for different reasons; and the reasons for supporting a policy can change over time. From the outside, to the casual observer, or well after the fact, it looks “the same,” but it isn’t.