Combat tales from Iraq - First hand blog account of US troops

I can't tell too much about Michael Yon's politics from his blog, altho I found him from a conservative blogger whom I like to bother and ask uncomfortable questions of in his comments section. But Yon himself seems to be simply an embedded reporter following the troops along and telling their stories. It's a pretty gripping read, a concrete reminder of the unpleasant hell your tax dollars are paying for. Even written from an embed position, it makes the war seem pretty hopeless.

Walt's eyes serve him well as a sniper, and though some people call enemy snipers cowards, anyone who knows anything about war knows that it takes guts to be a sniper, no matter what team you are on. I get the strange feeling that he'll become a great photojournalist, if he survives the war. But for now, something bigger than the future holds him here.

Walt doesn't talk about it, but the first thing to draw the eye in his room is the small shrine he keeps for his roommate, "Plum," who was killed in battle. Walt misses Plum immensely.

The Recon platoon is comprised mostly of young men. Combat has padded the age of most of these veterans, although you wouldn't know it from the ferocity of the fight still in them. Along with Plum, they lost another buddy, Benjamin "Rat" Morton, who was killed on a raid not long ago. In fact, of fifteen snipers in the company, five have been killed, and nearly all the rest have been wounded.

Walt is one of 11 Deuce-Four soldiers scheduled to receive their US citizenship in a ceremony in Baghdad on 25 July. This long and bureaucratic process will allow some of our soldiers fighting for Iraq and the United States to become American citizens, and partake in the democratic process and freedoms that allow people like me to roam the planet and write....

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Watching the screen from inside the Stryker, the soldiers spotted a white car that matched a vehicle the army had been hunting. Our soldiers blocked the car, dismounted and ascertained the identity of the men, who were then detained with flex-cuffs. Meanwhile, mindful of the previous night's briefing and all the recent sniper attacks, I was taking photos but found myself constantly seeking new cover from sniper fire that might be no more than a breath away.

When the Deuce-Four soldiers started loading their two detainees onto the Stryker--crack! A sniper fired. The bullet raced toward us at about one-half mile per second. At that speed, even if the bullet strikes a helmet, or the armor-plating that covers chests and backs, the impact alone can kill. The supersonic bullet was heading straight into the back of a Stryker . . . where bang! It punched a hole through a metal seat, barely missing a detainee and the American soldiers next to him.

Nobody knew all this yet. All we knew was crack! The shot had come from behind me. Within half a second, I was down, swung around on a knee; so fast that some soldiers thought I was shot.

It's a great source to remind us of the people for whom we're fighting to end this war.

Anyone who has been in battle knows that the god and country thing is a bunch of crap!!!!!I wonder what the Memorial for these guys and girls is going to be?

then



and finally look who takes over Iraq