There is no good news, so they’ll limit the amount of bad news to be reported. Good Lord when is this nightmare going to end?????

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of embedded journalists reporting alongside U.S. troops in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level of the war even as the conflict heats up on the streets of Baghdad and in the U.S. political campaign.

In the past few weeks, the number of journalists reporting assigned to U.S. military units in Iraq has settled to below two dozen. Late last month, it fell to 11, its lowest, and has rebounded only slightly since.

During the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, more than 600 reporters, TV crews and photographers linked up with U.S. and British units. A year ago, when Iraqis went to the polls to ratify a new constitution, there were 114 embedded journalists.

“This is more than pathetic,” said Sig Christenson, a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and president of Military Reporters and Editors, a journalists’ group. “It strikes me as dangerous” for the American public to get so little news of their military, said Christenson, who recently returned from an embedded assignment in Iraq.

Some journalists blame the decline on Pentagon bureaucracy, the reporting restrictions journalists face, and pressure by some commanders to avoid “negative” coverage. Both journalists and U.S. military officers point to declining interest in the long-running story, and the high cost, both in money and danger, of coverage.