Iraq: Another Reminder About the Dangers of Premature Celebration

So, an Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq is freed after thousands of her countrymen march in support . . . the Italian people respond with jubilation . . . the mayor of Rome orders that the Coliseum be floodlit in celebration . . . and then the Americans shoot her?

(By accident. If you haven't seen the front page of today's Times: "The military did not know that the hostage was in the car, a State Department official in Washington said." The journalist was wounded; an Italian intelligence agent in the car with her, who had been instrumental in arranging her release, was killed.)

This should do wonders for Italian-American relations and help win even more support for our efforts in Iraq, don't you think?