Michael Yon has to be one of the most well-respected people in the milblog community - and a lot of other places, too. His unflinching, unbiased look at what's really going on with our troops is invaluable. His pictures have been heartbreaking. His stories have been jaw-dropping. And he doesn't have to make a single thing up - unlike others reporting on our troops. He's not sugar-coating it, either - he's been critical of U.S. policy in Iraq, critical of military red tape. But one thing has remained constant - he has always supported our Heroes, and has always been a voice to shout to the rafters about just how amazing they are.

One of the things he's spoken of is the media bias we harp on frequently. It's pretty hard to argue with the MSM's bias against anything military. But Yon tells it like it is - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

He's back in Mosul now, with a keen eye for where that city is. Mosul's been synonymous with the insurgency - a place of car bombs and attacks, of strife and hotly-contested desert.

But what is Mosul really like? What do those on the ground see when they walk the streets? Yon knows.

In Desolate Roads, Part II, he takes a look at the city as it is now:

The wind hasn’t blown hard in Mosul since 2005, but there are still a lot of holes in the lumber that frames its slow but undeniable reconstruction. Only about a single battalion of American soldiers is left here. There has been indisputable progress in building ISF in Mosul. I have seen it demonstrated on missions that I have not written about. But the decision to precipitously draw down American forces in Mosul was not chiefly predicated to sync with those ISF successes. In truth, we simply do not have enough nails in Iraq—we never did—and so nails have been pulled from Mosul to pound into Baghdad and Anbar.

He also takes a look at our troops, and how little Americans really know of the Heroes half a world away:

The small contingent of American combat forces remaining in Mosul is commanded by a lieutenant colonel of limited renown. With about 700 soldiers in his battalion, he commands roughly one soldier for every 3,000 citizens. Most of the outcome of the American effort in Iraq comes down to a small number of anonymous battalions which shoulder the bulk of the combat load in places like Ramadi, Baqubah, Basra (UK), Baghdad and here in Mosul.

If Americans really wanted to know their Army, American kids would be swapping trading cards of the battalion commanders and command sergeant majors, company commanders and 1st sergeants, and those legions of unknown squad-leaders who earn three Purple Hearts and decorations for valor before they are old enough to rent cars back home.

This particular post is a must, not just for civilians like me, but for everyone who really wants to know what the boots on the ground are walking through.