A real journalist

(Photo by Michael Yon, via southdakotapolitics.blogs.com)

Independent journalist Michael Yon, describing the above photo he shot while embedded with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment (Deuce Four) in Mosul, Iraq:

"I shot that photo on a day when a suicide or homicide car bomber ran into one of our Stryker vehicles, injured a couple of our soldiers, and, unfortunately, there were a lot of children who had crowded around to wave at our people.

"And the attackers had every opportunity to just wait a couple of blocks and attack our guys later, without the children being around, but instead chose to attack straight through the children.

"And Major [Mark] Bieger, who is in the photo, found the little girl -- her name is Farah -- and decided he wanted to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. And so he picked her up, wrapped her in a blanket, and loaded her into one of our vehicles and started to take her to the hospital as fast as possible. And unfortunately, little Farah died en route.

"We went back to that neighborhood the next day, and the people there actually welcomed us with open arms. They welcomed us into their homes."

(from an interview on Fox News, via southdakotapolitics.blogs.com)

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This is one amazing man.



In his early days, boldly going to Iraq on his own, he relied on reader donations from his blog. Indeed, he still does, but he has since made some influential (and, fortunately, well-heeled and generous) friends.

On his website, he recounts what one of them has gotten up to in Myanmar, post-Cyclone Nargis, trying to get aid to the suffering people. It's real cloak-and-dagger stuff; a riveting read:

"At the arranged time, on 10 June, the first coded message pinged out from the American [Yon's friend], whom I will call Charlie Marlow. 'Charlie' was in Yangon when he sent the message to 'Translator', who contacted 'Manager', who contacted 'Cook', as well as the four other crew members. At about 10:30 p.m., all had assembled in the darkness on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. The Burmese Navy was patrolling the Irrawaddy further downstream, and a number of foreign journalists had been recently deported after broadcasting embarrassing stories from the delta. There were stern warnings to the locals not to facilitate entry or movement of foreigners to the region. There was talk that the military had stationed at least one soldier in nearly every village to report on any contact with outsiders."

(Scroll down to read The River Part 1 first, then back up to 2)

He's recently written a best-seller, "Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope."

I wish there were more like him.