Embeded Iraq correspondent Michael Yon finds more to meet the eye than war. Birdwatching:
"We did not see the attack, but a mushroom cloud billowed in the background as I was rushing to photograph a beautiful bee-catcher. (Iraq has [a] fascinating array of birds, and when this war is over, I’m coming back with a long lens and a tripod.)"
The action on Teflon Don’s R&R from Iraq revealed by Badger 6.
Big Army offensives, as Robert Kaplan more or less said in his enlightening GWOT book "Imperial Grunts," are the antithesis of good counterinsurgency. So you have to wonder what’s up with "The Battle of Iraq – 2007", as Bill Roggio headlines his command-level updating post on it. Search and destroy was a big waste of time and lives in Vietnam. This one is billed as cleaning out "safe havens."
Comments Off on More on the offensive
Tagged 2007 offensive, Bill Roggio, Iraq, safe havens, search and destroy
Passionate reporting from Michael Yon–who is throwing in his lot with Gen. Petraeus–who says a big US offensive is underway in Iraq, one that is so far largely ignored back home. "It’s like the Wild West out there," one commenter quotes her infantryman brother who is moving in with the Stryker Brigade.
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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops
Tagged Be Not Afraid, Gen. Petraeus, Iraq, Michael Yon, Stryker Brigade
Teflon Don is blogging his home leave. He seems to have arrived, but mentions this stop in Dallas:
"After another long stretch in the plane, we landed in Dallas. The people in Dallas are great–my first glimpse of America included a fire truck spraying an arc of water over the plane to welcome us home. Inside, the terminal was almost bare, but there was a still a small crowd that went to the airport at 6 a.m. to greet us."
Some veterans groups, particularly Vietnam veterans, organize these welcomes. Glad to see they’re still doing them at DFW. I guess the firetrucks were organized by the airport. "No one was rude," he writes, as if he expected some might be.
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Posted in Iraq, Texana, The War, Troops
Tagged Acute Politics, Dallas-Forth Worth airport, home leave, Iraq, Teflon Don
Another good photo essay by Michael Yon on the Brits patrolling in Southern Iraq:
"…life is simple. Sand. Wind. Sand. More wind."
Always worth a look.
JD Allen in Brazoria has another interesting riff, this one on buffalos and Hollywood, with bulls and cows mixed in and around there. This is the sort of buffalo I was preoccupied with earlier, an IED hunter, in a link to something Teflon Don was describing. But JD’s is the more elemental, mythic American Great Plains animal you have heard of. Speedy devil.
Comments Off on Of buffalo
Posted in Iraq, Texana, Troops
Tagged buffalo, Buffalo IED hunter, Great Pains, Iraq, Texana
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 