It can be easy to feel like the war America is currently involved in is far away. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to gain a better understanding of the conflict.

For most of us, the war in Iraq doesn't drastically affect our daily lives. So firsthand accounts can sometimes be our only insight into the war and are therefore extremely valuable to our country.

Scott Rutter, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former Fox News embedded correspondent, spoke in South Kedzie Hall last week about his experiences overseas.

The $3,000 cost to bring Rutter to campus was sponsored by a number of on-campus residence halls, MSU's Office of the President, the MSU College Republicans and the Young America's Foundation.

Fliers advertising the event showed a controversial Nov. 11 editorial cartoon by Mike Ramsey published in The State News that suggested the military uses torture methods similar to those used by Nazis in concentration camps. The cartoon was not the purpose of Rutter's speech but a spokesperson for MSU College Republicans said it was used on the flier to illustrate what she called the media's "liberal slant."

America has a very conservative political landscape right now, and a newspaper's opinion page is meant to question our current authority. Of course with the right-wing ways of the Bush administration, reactions might appear more liberal than if our president had a more moderate or liberal agenda.

But there is a huge difference between a cartoon on an opinion page and a factual article on a news page.

Good journalists attempt to deliver news in unbiased, equal-sided articles, while opinion pieces are meant to share just that — someone's personal opinion on an issue.

And Rutter's perspective is also just one side of a complicated matter. He clearly has strong pro-military ties and worked for Fox News, which has a reputation for being conservatively biased.

This guy gave a perspective that is valuable, sure, but still unquestionably biased.

The truth can be told in a number of different ways. Two people can be in the same place, at the same time, experience the same thing and come out with two completely different views and reactions.

Accounts of the war in Iraq are best told by people who have lived them, but one story does not nearly express all that should and needs to be said.