Recently an article in The Kansas City Star [read story] caught my eye. It was about a speech to the National Council of Editorial Writers by Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, who spent more than a year in Iraq as the chief spokesman for the Multi-National Force there. He is now commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He told the editorial writers that he had strongly urged his colleagues in the military to be open with the press, and not to fear talking with reporters. Those were frankly encouraging words for the ombudsman, whose aim is to improve communication between people in uniform and the media. I put several questions to Lt. Gen. Caldwell.

Several former U.S. generals have spoken out about the status of the war in Iraq, but few have caused the waves that retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez caused with a speech on Oct. 12. Addressing a meeting of the Military Reporters and Editors organization in Virginia, the former top commander in Iraq started out by blasting the press, at some length. Then he took on his former employers at the Department of Defense, as well as the State Department, the White House and Congress.

They would be retired Gen. Wesley Clark, onetime Supreme Allied Commander Europe turned liberal politician, and Rush Limbaugh, darling of conservative talk radio.

The blogs of all political stripes have been inflamed for days over a comment Limbaugh made on his show. It was interpreted by many as a swipe at servicemembers who have come out against the war. The words he used were "phony soldiers." Limbaugh immediately claimed he wasn't referring to disenchanted GIs, but to a single antiwar activist who indeed was found not to have been in the service.

A letter to the editor in Stripes' Sept.30 issue decried what was pictured as the paper's paltry coverage of the U.S. women's soccer team, which competed in the women's World Cup in Shanghai, China. "Is anyone else aware that the U.S. women's soccer team reached the semifinals of the World Cup (and played in the consolation game)?" asked Angela Torres of Heidelberg, Germany.

She continued: "Why is more coverage being given to Michael Vick's brainless exploits than to the winning prowess of this incredible team?" Not only Stripes but American Forces Network "should be ashamed of themselves for not giving equal coverage, especially in light of the '39-point rule'," Ms. Torres wrote.