Michael Yon is back in Baghdad after completing a 10-day, 1,200-mile trip around Iraq.

He has a whole lot packed into his latest dispatch, "Meanwhile":

about the trip...

Often the most dangerous places in Iraq are at the front gates of bases where suicide attackers roll in. Outside the wire—and often inside the wire—is bad-guy country. A block away from a base might as well be a hundred miles away. We rolled out in humvees for what would be about a 1,225 mile trip inside Iraq, and another portion to Germany and back.

...about why honest coverage is important...

...we must stick with our people who have been mostly abandoned at war. I understand the position of the journalists. Especially the ones who get blown up or shot at fairly regularly, but the informed interest of ordinary Americans is critical to the outcome of this war. And the truth is that our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of whom rarely (if ever) see a writer, are abandoned by default.

...about the morale of our Heroes in Iraq...

...I watch morale very closely. More closely than all else. Low morale in a particular unit can be the result of poor leadership in that unit, or just not getting mail, for instance. But gauging morale is not a simple affair of asking a few soldiers. A person has to live with them across Iraq. Having done so, my opinion is that overall troop morale is good to high. (If their morale could be bottled, it would probably would sell like crack, then be outlawed.)...

...and about a whole lot of other things, too. Though he's been plagued by Internet connectivity issues during this embed, he is still out there, telling an honest tale from Iraq.

Labels: Blogwatch, Iraq, Michael Yon