Since it is September 11, I thought I would pass on a couple of links I have found very informative over the past couple of months.

Michael Yon: Online Magazine

The Fourth Rail

The Belmont Club

For exactly the past 4 years I have had a habit of checking CNN.com with a habitual regularity.  It all started 4 years ago this morning when I wondered what was behind the enigmatic email I received from work:  "Due to obvious circumstances the Stock Market and our Trading department are closed until further notice."

CNN.com could barely load, and they had reverted back to their circa 1998 lightweight HTML design.  Since then the habit of regular checking has persisted.   A few months ago I was reading an article that made it seem as if the US military was simply driving around Iraq waiting for bombs to go off.   I decided to dig deeper and see if I could get firsthand accounts of what was going on.  The first of the links above is just that.  A writer embedded with a combat unit in Mosul.  The other two are in-depth analysis of the situation.  

A much different picture than the main-stream media (cnn.com and others) are providing.