An interesting view. It provides an encouraging view of people on the ground trying to do a good job, but my mind kept wandering back to the motives and objectives of the leaders at the top who launched this invasion and occupation, and opened the pandora's box that the soldiers are now attempting to re-close.

This is terrible journalism. The blogger relays an anecdote that Al Qaeda is baking and serving children for dinner--an astonishing assertion that is of course widely picked up and disseminated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Then the blogger writes in an email, "Whether the story of al Qaeda baking children is true or not, I do not know." How irresponsible can you be? As Yon explains in his email,"I included an anecdotal report from an Iraqi official here in Baqubah about al Qaeda baking boys and serving them to their families. I made no further comment as to the veracity of the report, which readers will see had very few specifics." Well, why let the facts -- or lack thereof--get int he way of a good story? Shameful! The ... More »

A highly partisan opinion piece that is more advocacy than journalism. It largely presents the author's opinions as facts, and offers very little evidence or independent viewpoints to back up its assertions. For example, witness this sentence: 'More and more Iraqis put their trust in Americans as arbiters of justice.' No factual evidence is provided to confirm this statement, which contradicts many independent reports from much more credible sources. This is a textbook example of the type of misinformation that NewsTrust aims to stamp out.

Michael Yon is the best war correspondent we have. He writes from the field, his sources are ordinary soldiers and Iraqis, his photography is superb, his prose is clear and jargon free. If you want to know what is happening in Iraq you have to read Michael Yon.

This story grew some legs, and of course, as evidenced by an unhappy reviewer below, the distortions have begun. First, Yon is not a "blogger." In the story itself, Michael Yon clearly contextualizes this anecdote. The official refuses to give his name, the story is hearsay. Should it have been excluded from the dispatch? Perhaps, but I'm not so sure. The author explains that due to the brutality he has witnessed the story is plausible. And he doesn't report it as though it's a verified incident, he reports the event of being told the story and having it translated.