By the time the decision to invade Iraq was taken ,the world was still recovering from one of the biggest media events in history: the attack on the Twin Tower on 11 September 2001. The intense media scrutiny that surrounded this event carried over into the reporting of the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Once again, the US military sought to re-establish its control over the media – this time by implementing a system of embedding more than 600 US and international reporters who lived, worked and travelled with select military units.