I frankly don't see that this is all that important or real journalism. It seems mostly to be a blow by blow macho glorification of war with next to nothing that could help us make informed decisions about how to approach this nightmare, which is what journalism is essentially for. It is good to have someone on the ground doing this, but it adds very little to the bigger picture that the major press has been reporting.

This war's Ernie Pyle produces another well-written dispatch. I appreciate Yon's willingness to put his life on the line for the story and that he presents the story without hyperbole. it is what it is.

Deeply engaging with the action of two forces trying to kill each other. The rationalizations are all one-sided and preservation oriented, which is compelling in that space, but misses the big picture.

An interesting addition to Newstrust, from a source previously untapped. The piece is well-written and gripping to read. I found that very few details in the report can be independently verified, and many of the sources are unidentified eg. what are the names of the British soldiers who "look at their American counterparts with mixture of dismay and respect"? The writer's admitted admiration for the soldiers he is covering - "I was always more than comfortable going into combat with these men" - casts doubts on the report's completeness and objectivity.

Important to hear from a believable on the ground cheerleader for blood and guts. The insanity of modern war....I thinking what this would look like if the innocent people of Connecticut , where i live, were being exposed to the indignities Basra's innocent citizens deal with daily....and for how long.....good reporting...yet I find it imposable to view the invaded Iraqi's as ' the enemy'. This report is front page info, something to counter the corporate media / Bush & co fluff. I would love to hear Greg Palast interview this reporter. After reading this I recognize the importance of .... http://beta.newstrust.net/webx/Stories/files/70427-0018/

This is a well written story of war. Not emotional, just the facts.

Michael Yon stories are often slow starting, or need a re-reading of the initial few paragraphs to set the stage, but once they develop, they are completely riveting. He is clearly the best "embedded reporter" covering Iraq.

It is hard to do anything other than sing the praises of Mr. Yon's writing. It is compelling, immersing the reader in the sensations and situations endured by the coalition warfighters. It is a clean first-hand account, untarnished by political considerations, and showing the professionalism and bravery of the front line troops.

First person account in a war zone.

In a word...Wow Mike Yon sends us a gripping portrayal of combat embedded with the British in Basra.

Mr Yon reports what he sees. Not what he thinks or what he thinks the reader should see.

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 ... More »

Turns the war into a comic book. Soldiers die, but that doesn't matter so much to Yon as the bams and thwaks. For all his suggestion that he's presenting the lives of British soldiers, you sure don't see a one of them quoted. "Ask a combat soldier a question, you get an answer. Ask the soldier next to him the same question, you get a different answer." Such as?

Wow, this is great reporting. It's straight forward and unadorned thus the events come through for the reader to assemble into a meaningful whole. Of course, since the writer is embedded with only one side in this conflict, I guess one could argue bias. But so what. The opponents here have Mickey Mouse for their version.

Michael Yon is the best war correspondent I have ever read. I know noone better.

Michael Yon sets the tone from the very beginning. His stories remind me a bit of Michael Herr's Dispatches in that it captures the grit and reality of infantry warfare.

More Authentic than anything produced by major media.

Micheal Yon's work is not good journalism, it is great journalism. His long-form reports and sometimes magnificent (sometimes pedestrian) photography examine the war in depth and from a perspective that I once expected our corporate media to at least aspire to. Sadly, one of the best things you can learn from almost any Yon piece is how shallow the corporate media (left and right) has become.

Michael Yon is an independent reporter/writer in Iraq; his stories appear in Fox News and on his personal site. His stories are in-depth and personal, in the Ernie Pyle tradition of war reporting, but with a good dose of reality and no propaganda.

Michael Yon puts his butt on the line to deliver the best combat reporting from Iraq. This dispatch paints a vivid picture of a British ambush on the enemy in Basra.

This is great journalism - Ernie Pyle, Pulitzer prize journalism. Any closer and we would get bitten by the sand flies. As others have commented, slow start leading to totally enthralling detail until the very end.

Full of facts observed first hand.

There's no substitute for embedded reporting. Not a Green Zone dispatch written by a stringer.

Of course,it is an antidote to the run of the mill pablum produced by the Baghdad-resident media, This is the soldier's view stripped of the cant abstractions thumbsucking columnists feed us. It is also rare to learn of the Brits' part of the war.

This is the only journalism that matters.

First party information from someone on the ground and in the action