At home last weekend, thanks to my wife’s juggling of the DVD queue, we watched Control Room. An eighty-minute documentary about Al Jazeera in the build-up to the Gulf War (2003 version), Control Room did show me things I knew little about, but it wasn’t riveting. Or maybe I was just too tired to keep my eyes open. The most interesting sections featured the American media officer in Central Command, Lt. John Rushing. The military has officers focused on working with the media. Doesn’t that say something? This man was polished, but not slick. He seemed sincere without being naive. He comes off well in the movie. But our military needs press officers?!? From the movie’s website, “Before going to the Middle East, Lt. Rushing worked in Hollywood negotiating script content with big budget studios on behalf of the US military.” Is that a sign of our civilization or something else entirely?