Yon does traditional combat journalism. As a former soldier, he knows what the troops he accompanies are doing and - more important for the story - why. This story is not about fairness. Anyone digging on or beside a road at night may be shot without warning, much less a trial. A lot of the story is about pragmatics. Do you shoot the "pipe swingers", the unskilled, possibly coerced, men who dig the hole, the men who come later to put the bomb in the hole, or those who hook up the wire and take position ready to trigger the explosion? A lot of the story is about waiting to see what is being done from the viewpoints of multiple observers and about discipline, the discipline to fire immediately when ordered and the equally important discipline to wait for the order, even when the 'target' is leaving the area unharmed. This story is looking at "big picture" of the war in Iraqi theater, but it is the picture as seen from the mud at the foot of the berm, not from the planes overhead or the offices in the Green Zone.