For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of reading and watching and listening to Michael Yon, he has just completed a little masterpiece of war reporting from Baqubah in Iraq. Michael is arguably our finest embedded journalist. A former special forces guy, he is respected by the troops and has managed to earn their trust, which he fully deserves. He’s quite willing to criticize Americans, and has proved it. But nobody sticks with a story so long, so tenaciously, and reports it so thoroughly as Michael.
His latest is worth your full attention. In it, you will learn the extent to which the Iraqi bureaucracy is one of the basic causes of trouble. This story has a happy ending, in which American military leaders found a way to thwart the efforts of cowardly, corrupt or just plain bad Iraqi politicos. It will do wonders to explain to you how this thing is working. And not.
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Frieda:Yes, I did read his blog and I was so impressed, that for the first time I decided to help a journalist financially. I thought, instead of paying subscribition to a useless, biased newspaper; I rather pay someone that does a real journalism.
ML:
Me too, Frieda. Whenever I cut back on cigars I send him a few bucks.
Aug 10, 2007 - 2:59 am Winston:Michael Totten had a powerful post on an Iraqi translator, too!
I wonder if you saw that!
ML:
Yes I did. He pointed out that Iraqis who work for Coalition forces become targets for the terrorists. The USG is very slow at issuing visas for these people, even though, at the very same time, the USG complains about the lack of qualified translators, who are also in great demand as trainers for our troops about to go to the Middle East.
“Bureaucrats don’t solve problems, they apply the rules.”
Aug 11, 2007 - 3:24 am