Get Ready

By John

Mike Yon is leaving Cambodia and preparing to embed in Iraq again.

I didn't start blogging until Mike was at the tail end of his last embed. Which means I missed the whole Gates of Fire phenomena, much to my chagrin. Of course I read it after the fact, but what's exciting about the new embed is that a whole new generation of bloggers and blog-readers (like me) will get to experience Mike's reporting first-hand, for the first time.

One of Mike's famous photos, from his widely lauded "Gates of Fire" post. It's one of my favorite shots, because -as the bullet induced dust cloud so clearly illustrates- it demonstrated Mike's willingness to follow a story into hell and back.

I was chatting with a friend the other day about Mike's work, and why I appreciated it so much. The bottom line is that Yon is one of the few reporters out there whose writing is completely and utterly unstained by ideological slant, right or left. A rare creature indeed, and one most worthy of our readership....since he is, after all, doing this independently.

Be sure to keep up with his blog these next few months, and look for him in Iraq very, very shortly. He could use the support, and we could all use the insight.

December 18, 2006 08:20 PM The Long War