Battle For Mosul III: Prelude
PreludeDeuce Four soldiers receiving Purple Hearts.“Deuce Four,” is on its way home. I attended their departure ceremony, presided over by the much respected Brigade Commander, Colonel Robert Brown....
View ArticleOperation Rhma: Final Mission
Much world travel has convinced me that the “average American” is a good person. But even a good person needs information in order to act effectively on their best impulses. Oftentimes, good things do...
View ArticleThe Battle For Mosul IV
Soldiers, Spies, and SheepCharles Ford and “Jeff” at the sheep marketThey fled. It was all over the news. When the bullets flew, they fled. Leaving stations, abandoning posts, forgetting duties,...
View ArticleThe Embed
BaghdadI've returned to Iraq.People ask how journalists get embedded. This seems a fair moment for synopsis of some firsthand experience.The process begins with an application to the Combined Press...
View ArticleUpdate on Operation Rhma
Witnessing the critical Iraqi referendum Saturday, I saw such a breadth of events that some time is required to compose a dispatch equal to those historic proceedings. Accurately capturing the...
View ArticleUpdate: Iraq Constitutional Referendum Dispatch
My dispatch entitled “Purple Fingers," covering the Iraqi Constitutional Referendum, is finished. An excerpted version will be published in “The Weekly Standard” on Monday, 24 October 2005. The...
View ArticlePurple Fingers
BaghdadThe PerchI was in Baquba during the January elections. I’d hitched a ride with the US Army to a polling site. There were bombs exploding, mortars falling, and hot machine guns. The fact that the...
View ArticlePaying Respect to Those Who've Earned It
Bruce Willis is one of the finest and most successful actors in the world. Further introduction would be redundant. Mr. Willis has been to Iraq with his band and the USO, and has been following the...
View ArticleThe Senate
Over the next few days, beginning November 8, 2005, my work will be used on the floor of the Senate to describe the actions of our soldiers in Iraq. Between 9:30 and 10:00 am, Senators will be reading...
View ArticleAppearances
Much has occurred since my brief return from Iraq. I have so far been unable to post a dispatch about the return of the Deuce Four, and Bruce Willis’ appearance at the Deuce Four Ball where he was so...
View ArticleAmericans Among Us
Walt GayaI had yelled goodbye to Walt just before the mission, and some hours later when a bomb tore through the bottom of his Stryker vehicle, every man in it--including Walt--was wounded.Lying in the...
View ArticleThe Punishers' Ball
Deuce FourOn Ice: “The Punishers” are Back in TownAfter a hard year of fighting and nation-building in northern Iraq, the Deuce Four has finally and completely returned home to the United States, where...
View ArticleShow and Tell: A Photo Essay
I visited at least 50 schools all over Iraq.These wonderful children greeted American soldiers at a school near Khanaqin close by the Iranian border.The teachers could hardly contain the kids.Iraqi...
View ArticleBirds Of Baghdad
Birds of Baghdad Standing Watch in BaghdadI love birds. Everywhere, I notice the birds; often I hear their voices before seeing them. To my ears, the most beautiful singers are the mockingbirds. I can...
View ArticleTime Magazine Readers Vote
Regular visitors to the Time Magazine website are probably familiar with a feature called "Photo of the Week," where readers vote to select the most compelling photographs from the news that week.The...
View ArticleTurn up the Volume
I am working on a dispatch about the incredible Iraqi elections on 15th December. Meanwhile, the following video was sent to me by a caring citizen who closely follows the events in Iraq. The video was...
View ArticleThree Times the Charm
The Truth was evident almost a year ago--Iraqi people were determined to voteThree times now—three times this year—millions of Iraqis have come out swinging and voting. Hearing the news about the high...
View ArticleMontage Or Mirage
The election photo-montage I posted last week has a certain propagandistic feel to it. It has all the usual suspects: the waving flag, the iconic soundtrack (Fanfare for the Common Man, hardly on the...
View ArticleGeorgia National Guard in Iraq
I cannot remember all the times I’ve seen Iraqi mothers put their children into the arms of American soldiers. Coalition troops and others are fighting to save another Iraqi child. They do this every...
View ArticleCall for Volunteers: Frontline Forum
Retired Military Persons NeededThe difference a year can make is staggering. One year ago, the gap between the ground reports from Iraq from military friends prompted my travel to Iraq to see for...
View ArticleCatch and Release
Catch & ReleaseHe was only 23 years-old but by any measure he was a man. A real man who stood up to the terrorists who were savagely torturing him on an airliner. Those same terrorists shot the...
View ArticleSenator Mikulski Responds
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:10-Jan-2006 CONTACT: Melissa Schwartzhttp://mikulski.senate.gov202-228-1122 Mikulski Urges Sec. Rice to Honor Slain Maryland Serviceman, Extradite Convicted Killer“We must make...
View ArticleA tribute for service members and families
Many people say this is the most important photograph of the Iraq war. Some have called it "a national treasure." The image most completely embodies my experience throughout Iraq.Countless people have...
View ArticleDeja Vu in Dohuk
National Geographic has published one of most intelligently written pieces on Iraq I have seen. I do not know the writer, Frank Viviano, or the photographer, Ed Kashi, but their collaboration entitled...
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