Although the Pentagon has yet to claim victory, a quick surf across the television waves will demonstrate the war in Iraq is over.

After weeks of 24-hour war coverage, the national media shifted gears recently leaving many TV watchers, including yours truly, feeling a bit lost.

Weeks of live satellite phone feeds and reports from embedded journalists became a morning, noon and night ritual for many of us.

Many mornings, I got dressed watching Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks deliver updates from Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

I caught updates most days throughout the day. The fall of Baghdad, the capture of several key members of the former Iraqi regime and countless other stories bounced around during the days of the war.

Often, late at night, as the sun rose over Iraq, live updates would put me to bed.

It became such a habit that I actually caught myself once using the war as an excuse for my being tired.

"How ridiculous," I thought, seconds later.

Like many Americans, the technological advances that brought the war into my house -- live -- fascinated me.

War coverage was the ultimate reality show, with the major difference being, none of this was staged and rather than risking a broken heart or an upset stomach, participants were risking their lives.

I can admit it; I got caught up in the war. Like a train wreck, I couldn't look away.

I'm not some kind of warmonger or sicko who loves war and violence. It was just too intriguing to know that I was able to watch a war, halfway around the world from the comfort of my living room.

"Sick," some people might say.

And, perhaps, they would be correct.

Whatever the reason for my fascination with the war, an e-mail someone sent to me put the war -- or more specifically the plight of our soldiers -- into a new perspective.

The e-mail's subject was titled "Did you sleep well last night?" It contained four photographs; each showing American troops trying to rest in the desert. One showed soldiers hunkered down in a muddy foxhole; another showed a line of soldiers lying in fighting holes they'd dug into the desert.

The third photograph depicted a line of soldiers trying to use a paved highway as their mattress; the last image showed a soldier resting in the middle of a blinding sand storm.

Needless to say, viewing the photographs of what living through a war is really like gave me reason to pause, reason to rethink what war is really like.

Now, whenever someone mentions war, the images of those soldiers sleeping through misery will always come to mind well before the live TV images.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Ironton Tribune. He can be reached by calling (740) 532-1445 ext. 12 or by e-mail to kevin.cooper@irontontribune.com