CNN and the American news media seem to have locked on to a new catch word/phrase with the new war in Iraq:

“The battle for Umm Qasr had been expected to take between one to two hours but took four hours, CNN’s Jason Bellini said. He is embedded with the USMC Expeditionary Unit, 15th Artillery.” (CNN.com)

“In Ar Rumaylah, U.S. Marines battled four oil well fires during the night, bringing two of them under control by dawn, said Philip Ray Smith, a pool reporter embedded with Britain’s 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.” (CNN.com)

“Embedded with the troops, Fox News’ Oliver North interviewed the commander of the helicopter unit that crashed, Jerry Driscoll.” (FoxNews.com)

Okay, so we get it: there are reporters with some of the troops in Iraq. When did simply “with” become an insufficient term, necessitating “embedded with”? I take it “embedded” means that the journalists are not simply just tagging along on their own. Still, the term seems to have quickly fallen into overuse.