The television-watching public audience in the west was shown non-stop video footage of firework-like bombings, and point-of-view shots of missiles heading to their targets.
Fergal's reporting helped his television audiences make sense of the horrors of war, but underneath there were more personal reasons attracting him to the frontline.
And because they are essentially making their pitches to a vast television audience, the debates also underline how that the choice falls to ordinary Americans.