Yep.

***

The antithesis of Geraldo is Michael Yon. He’s back in Baghdad after traveling 1,200 miles around Iraq. He has much to report. Troop morale across the country, he says, is “good to high.” From his latest dispatch:

Often the most dangerous places in Iraq are at the front gates of bases where suicide attackers roll in. Outside the wire—and often inside the wire—is bad-guy country. A block away from a base might as well be a hundred miles away. We rolled out in humvees for what would be about a 1,225 mile trip inside Iraq, and another portion to Germany and back.

On the 18th, we drove from Baghdad to Ramadi for a “Transfer of Authority” from the 1st Brigade 1st Armored Division, to the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Geraldo Rivera was there. He’s got a cool mustache. Monte Morin of Stars & Stripes was there. Monte’s a serious war correspondent. Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno was there. Odierno is a serious general who runs a huge portion of this war. Next time Odierno comes on the news, it can be good to stop and listen.

Leaving Ramadi, some of the soldiers couldn’t get over Geraldo’s cool mustache. Many soldiers joke about Geraldo, while others greatly like him, but not even Bruce Willis can approach the cult status of Chuck Norris for combat soldiers. Soldiers love Chuck.

That same afternoon, we drove from Ramadi to Balad, bomb craters pocking the route like mile markers. In fact, for the entire 1,225 miles, the only constant was the bomb craters, those that had already happened and those waiting for the right vehicle to trigger them into existence. Both kinds carry the specter of instant or prolonged death, like a stowaway passenger with a suspicious cough. But in war, that passenger is more of a mascot, so CSM Mellinger was “walking the line” like he always does: out there with the warfighters. One of the highest ranking soldiers in Iraq spends more time on the roads than practically any young soldier.

With the odometer running over many embeds, Mellinger has taken me about 4,000 miles (total) up and down Iraqi roads, visiting units from north to south, east to west, showing that the military truly opens their doors to writers who will stick it out. They don’t even have to like you: my fights with the Army are well-known, yet they continue to open their doors. There’s a lesson in there. I wrote that Iraq was in a civil war shortly after covering the first elections. I wrote about commanders who did poorly, and ISF units that couldn’t shoot straight, and I wrote about the veneer of victory in Afghanistan cracking under the weight of a poppy-fueled Taliban resurgence. Yet they still let me in.

It’s a reminder of why I am so proud of my country, despite our many problems. It’s also a caution about why we must stick with our people who have been mostly abandoned at war.

As always, spread the word and keep going back.

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