'Washington Post' Reconsiders 'Postwar' Label

By: E&P Staff Mop-up operation or a raging war? Occupation or liberation? The press has long been divided on what to call the current conflict in Iraq. The Washington Post, for one, is re-considering its most prominent label: postwar.

In his Sunday column, Post ombudsman Michael Getler observed that last Saturday the paper published a letter on its Free For All page from a reader objecting to the label that editors has used for many months at the top of pages carrying news about the war in Iraq. The label reads "Postwar Iraq."

Getler noted that "the reader called attention to the 'stupidity' of such a label over stories with headlines such as, 'In Fallujah, Marines Feel Shock of War.'"

Several readers had previously raised this issue with Getler himself, and he admitted that he was "remiss in not raising the issue myself. Since the letter appeared, others have written to agree with the writer and to make the point, again, that 'the war is not over.'"

The editors, Getler revealed, "are taking this under consideration."

The New York Times no longer runs Iraq news under a continuing heading.