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Zhari District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan Task Force Spartan, 4-4Cav Operation Pyrite Pike The helicopters landed in Taliban country after midnight. This was not a community outreach moment. Commanders expected serious resistance and casualties were likely. In broad strokes, the two-day mission amounted to a “shaping operation.” Task Force Spartan is successfully using such missions to build outposts in the various hearts of Taliban-controlled areas. Most of these areas have never been tamed, largely due to insufficient troop commitments early in this war. We landed in the darkness and the helicopters roared away into the night. We stayed low in the...

Seldom do I waste time with rebutting articles, and especially not from publications like Rolling Stone. Tuesday, numerous people sent links to me of the latest Rolling Stone tripe. The story is titled “The Kill Team, The Full Story.” It should be titled: “BULLS**T, from Rolling Stone.” The story—not really an “article”—covers soldiers from 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) in Afghanistan. A handful of soldiers were accused of murder. It does in fact appear that a tiny group of rogues committed premeditated murder. I was embedded with the 5/2 SBCT and was afforded incredible access to the brigade by...

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died March 19 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they were allegedly shot with small arms fire by an individual from a military security group. The incident is under investigation. They were assigned to the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. KIA: CPL Donald R. Mickler Jr. from Trotwood, OH and SPC Rudy A. Acosta from Canyon Country, CA were the KIA. WIA: SGT Christopher J. Hemwall from Monroe, MI; SGT Zackary J. Hombel from Deer Park, WA;...

Michael Yon has been invited to embed again by both Great Britain and the US.Michael Yon isn’t a correspondent who sparks a neutral reaction in the reader. You either love him or you don’t. There’s not much of an in-between. In April Yon’s embed in Afghanistan ended abruptly. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, was in charge and some of Yon’s fans blamed the general. The official reason given was “overcrowding by journalists.” In a dispatch announcing the change, Yon wrote, “Haven’t seen a journalist in weeks.” In the preceding month, Yon had pulled no punches in...

The military has cut short a war correspondent's embed, and there may be evidence that the decision may have been part of a smear campaign against the writer. Michael Yon, a former Green Beret, has been covering Iraq and Afghanistan for six years. He has also covered conflicts in Thailand, the Philippines, and Nepal. Following a string of events covered by Yon that cast a negative light on two top NATO commanders, the military decided to terminate Yon's embed prematurely, citing reasons that didn't add up. ISAF's reason for disembedding Yon was “embed overcrowding.” Yet in an email to Admiral...

It began with a bridge. On the morning of March 1, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated on Tarnak River Bridge near Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing multiple civilians and one American soldier. While the destruction of a single bridge might ordinarily pose a mere inconvenience to the U.S. war machine, in the oppressive terrain of Afghanistan it became a logistical chokepoint, halting ground-based operations for days. War correspondent Michael Yon sought the answer to an uncomfortable question: who was responsible for the security of that bridge? Yon is no ordinary reporter. A former Green Beret with U.S. Army Special Forces, he...

Admiral Gregory Smith is General Stanley McChrystal's mouth, so it's curious that the United States Naval Institute would lock onto my Facebook, get emotional, and launch a torpedo without thinking. It's a great honor to be attacked by the United States Naval Institute for a Facebook entry. Now that they are being proven wrong, will... they do the honorable thing? http://blog.usni.org/2010/04/19/one-voice-is-a-heads-up-many-voices-are/comment-page-1/#comment-223039

The best war journalist of our time has been kicked out of Afghanistan... Let the administration boot Helen Thomas out of her seat in the front of a White House press conference and there would be outrage. Remove Jonathan Karl from the Capitol and media would revolt. Kick Andrea Kremer off Sunday Night Football and there would be pandemonium. And yet nobody in the media seems to have much of a problem with Michael Yon being removed from the front lines by Obama/General McChrystal. Yon has openly stated the problems in Afghanistan right now and how we could lose...

From Michael Yon's Facebook page:An American soldier emailed from Afghanistan saying that his unit has been ordered to patrol with no round in the chamber.http://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/123097424378854

No one reporting on the Global War on Terror has done a more effective or honest job than Michael Yon. For one thing he knows the military, having served in U.S. Army Special Forces. With his camera and his pen, he enabled readers to see aspects of war corporate media could or would not divulge. On Saturday, April 10, Yon posted a message on his magazine-style website. “[A] message came from military that this embed has ended.” He headed off to pack his bags.

Michael Yon is an author and has been a combat journalist for over five years, spending time as an embedded reporter in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Yon is also a former Green Beret, making him an ideal liaison between the needs of both military and journalism when reporting in war zones. According to Yon, on January he was returning from Afghanistan via Hong Kong, landing in Seattle. He carried with him nothing more extraordinary than his camera equipment. He didn’t tell them his profession, but said, “They started figuring it out when they found my press credentials from Iraq...

This from Michael Yon on Facebook: http://ww.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPageGot arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...eventually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies. h/t tip North Shore JournalInstead of going after those that are suspected terrorists, this happens? I was reading a post at JWF, where Joan Rivers was booted...

Thank goodness our Homeland Security people are on the job after the EunuchBomber botched attack on Christmas Day. We certainly don’t want to have independent war correspondents passing through our airports without revealing their annual income: Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from...

An act of injustice. This really ticks me off. Michael Yon, who I follow regularly as he travels with embedded troops around the world as they fight insurgents, Taliban, al-Qaida and other terrorists was handcuffed and detained by TSA security at SeaTac earlier today when he was returning from overseas. Update: Yon did not say that TSA handcuffed him – I made that assumption. My guess is that it was Customs or Immigration when he was re-entering the USA. I just updated my post headline accordingly. Get this. They wanted to know what his annual income was, and since he...

Thank goodness our Homeland Security people are on the job after the EunuchBomber botched attack on Christmas Day. We certainly don’t want to have independent war correspondents passing through our airports without revealing their annual income: Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not “arrested”, but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eventually came — they were professionals — and rescued me from...

-excerpt- A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas. Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division. Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City...

After serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Marine Lance Cpl. James Yon says there’s no comparison in the willingness of America’s two enemies to fight. “I have respect for them,” the 28-year-old Rock Hill native said of Afghanistan’s Taliban. “They actually do stand toe-to-toe with you.” By contrast, insurgent forces in Iraq prefer impersonal roadside bombs, said Yon, who was deployed to that country less than two years ago... A member of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment from Kaneohe, Hawaii, Yon was at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital here last week after suffering injuries in a blast. The lanky 6-footer...

17 August 2009 Sangin, Afghanistan The roads are so littered with enemy bombs that nearly all transport and resupply to this base occurs by helicopter. The pilots roar through the darkness, swoop into small bases nestled in the saddle of enemy territory, and quickly rumble off into the night. A witness must spend only a short time in the darkness to know we are at war. Flares arc into the night, or mortar illumination rounds drift and swing under parachutes, orange and eerily in the distance, casting long, flickering but sharply defined shadows. The worst that can happen is that...

Thursday night, 06 August 2009 Afghanistan I made this photo last night in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. This Landing Zone is very dangerous. A few weeks ago, another helicopter was coming into this LZ and was shot down at the last minute, killing all passengers and crew. Two children on the ground also were killed. The sparks coming off the rotors occur when the helicopters land in hot, dusty conditions. The landing itself occurs in a dangerous "brownout." Brownout danger is compounded by the sparks which light up the dust and can confuse pilots who are wearing extremely sensitive nightvision goggles.

Today’s mission included moving to capture some bomb makers. What the Gurkhas did not know was that the action they thought they were moving to was not the actual training. The real training was to be an attack on them that would occur along the way. Major Will Kefford, the commander of C coy, continues to throw unexpected curveballs at the men. Nothing is sacred. Everything is a trick. Before we set off, Major Kefford said to me something like, “See that man on the ground over there? That’s Agnish. He got the Military Cross in Afghanistan on the last...

President Obama has just spoken on AfPak. I closed my eyes and listened closely to his words, coming via the BBC from the other side of the world. The President's words were disappointing. He talked about our goal to reach a force level of 134,000 Afghan soldiers and 82,000 police by 2011. This is not even in the neighborhood of being enough. Further, the increase of 21,000 U.S. troops is likely just a bucket of water on the growing bonfire. One can only expect that sometime in 2010, the President will again be forced to announce another increase in U.S....

On 24 February 2009, President Barack Obama said during his speech: “The United States of America Does Not Torture.” The President’s words were cast LIVE, around the globe, and I was literally on the other side of the world, a dozen time zones away watching it on CNN. I made a small entry on the website with a few thoughts, unleashing a torrent of criticism, which was expected; I don’t write to please, but in an attempt to deliver truth about the war.

MICHAEL Moore may wind up in court with a prize-winning journalist who claims the mountain-size moviemaker ripped off his most famous photo to use in a George W. Bush-bashing rant. Last year, to illustrate one of his anti-administration bombasts, the portly polemicist posted on his michaelmoore.com Web site a heartbreaking photo from Iraq of an American soldier carrying the blood-spattered body of a child. The picture was snapped by acclaimed independent war correspondent Michael Yon, who has been very careful about how his images are distributed and goes out of his way to make sure they aren't used for demagogic...

The Department of Homeland Security in Action 04 January 2009 A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend, Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from a good family; and one that is wealthier...

U.S. and Afghan soldiers in Zabul Province give high marks to the Lithuanian Special Forces, who like to ride these captured Taliban motorbikes to sneak up on, and chase Taliban fighters. The “LithSof” are on their way to becoming living legends: Both Afghans and Americans report that the Taliban are afraid of the Lithuanians. Stories about them are filled with dangerous escapades and humor. Americans say that the Lithuanians are sort of a weaponized version of Borat, who think nothing of sauntering around a base in nothing but flip-flops and underwear. “They look like mountain men. They never shave, sometimes...

Once it was impossible to keep track of all the bloodshed. Now it's impossible to keep track of all the progress. General Petraeus once told me during the height of the fighting, that South Baghdad was the canary in the mineshaft. In his exact words regarding what Lieutenant Colonel Pat Frank had to deal with in one of the toughest places in Iraq, "It will be the canary in the mineshaft; if they can pull it off, this will be doable.” It is critical to point out that General Petraeus told me this in 2007 — just at the crest...

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis,...

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis,...

Late Sunday, U.S. Special Forces struck positions across the Syrian-Iraq border, inside of Syria, apparently killing nine people, most of whom were non-Syrian Arab fighters on their way into Iraq. Of course there is a great cry rising from the Syrians today. For years, tons of explosives and a long line of foreign terrorists have streamed across the Syrian border into Anbar Province and Nineveh Province in Iraq. I must have spent a total of about nine months in Nineveh, about eight of which were in the capital of Mosul, and another month in Anbar. Foreign terrorists were caught or...

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.” William FaulknerTraveling along the roads of Afghanistan (when there are roads) provides a different perspective on life back home. Folks in the U.S. are worried about the economy, and while I can understand that many are struggling, it’s easy to forget how much we still have. In Afghanistan, and other countries all over the world, there are many people who literally...

Since leaving the British embed, I’ve gone unilateral. I flew back and forth between Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, drove around and talked with people down south, then flew up to Kabul. In Kabul, I met Tim Lynch and Shem Klimiuk (a retired USMC and ex-Aussie paratrooper, respectively), and we drove in an unarmored truck east to Jalalabad. The canyon-filled drive would be dangerous even if there was no war, but there is a war – a rapidly growing one — and Tim pointed out burnt spots on the road where ambushes had occurred. I was unarmed, and counting on the...

Can the war in Afghanistan be won? It depends on whom you ask. The senior British commander in Afghanistan recently was quoted in The Times of London, "This war cannot be won." A French diplomatic dispatch reports that the British ambassador said the best solution would be to find an "acceptable dictator" to take over the troubled country. But the British soldiers with whom I was recently embedded in Helmand Province had very high morale and felt optimistic about Afghanistan. And British and American officers whose judgment and honesty I trust share that optimism, even acknowledging the difficult challenges they...

Some days ago I visited the bazaar at Jalalabad, and took a bunch of colorful photographs and met many friendly people. Walking through Jalalabad, one could almost forget there was a war. But for the most part, this war is today being fought not in the cities, but the villages and small family compounds where most Afghanis live. Urban counterinsurgency can be incredibly dangerous, yet the population has a common life. City dwellers are dependent on civil services like water, sewage and electricity; they often have specialized roles in complex economies. Their feelings and opinions form a political aggregate which...

Living with British troops of 2 Para at FOB Gibraltar and watching them fight, I witnessed one of the great paradoxes of Afghanistan. The troops are fighting hard and killing the enemy. They are professional and extremely competent. Their morale is high. They are doing a great job. And we are losing the war. Their troubles with a local sniper demonstrate some of the complexities and frustrations of this war, which the British public don’t even call a “war.” The British soldiers know this is a real war, but the British at home characterize it as a “conflict.” Meanwhile, Americans...

The ambush was set, but “Terry” Taliban didn’t step into it. The most successful hunters are not the ones who bag something every time, but the ones who hunt all the time, and 2 Para has been hunting the most dangerous prey. The soldiers of C-co 2 Para are not sure how many they’ve killed in the past five months, but the estimates are around 200, and during the days I spent with them, their average daily kill would put them well over that number. Moving out of our ambush position, we set off from the ANA (Afghan National Army)...

The soldiers are living like animals at a little rat’s nest called FOB Gibraltar. They call it “Gib.” Named after the lynchpin of British naval dominance in the Mediterranean, this cluster of mud huts in the middle of hostile territory is more like Fort Apache, Afghanistan. The British soldiers from C-Company 2 Para live in ugly conditions, fight just about every day, and morale is the best I have seen probably anywhere. The few outside visitors arrive in helicopters that are sometimes spaced days apart, so that if a visitor stays overnight, he could be stuck for a week or...

By now, no credible person denies the dramatic success that continues to manifest itself in Iraq. No doubt, there will be years of political dramas ahead for that country, and when they occur, we will blame ourselves for them, as is our habit. Americans have a tendency to blame ourselves nearly everything from wildfires to genocidal wars on the other side of the globe. And what we don't blame ourselves for, others will. Some might see our ability to take initiative and shoulder responsibility as naiveté. I think it's one of America's greatest strengths. Many people around the world see...

14 July 2008The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What's left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the...

Some updates: I have left the United States and am heading back to the war. Heavy promotion of Moment of Truth in Iraq is over. I conducted approximately 100 radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews, therefore was unable to do much more than track the war from afar. There are more radio interviews scheduled, but I’ll be talking from downrange. Moment of Truth in Iraq hit #6 on the Amazon bestseller list, and #2 on Barnes and Noble, which greatly surprised me. Michael Moore has stopped the copyright infringement on my work, but his attorney has not responded to my...

I hereby offer to accompany any Senator to Iraq, whether they are pro-or anti-war, Democrat or Republican. I will make this offer personally to a few select Senators as well. Our conversations during the visit would be on- or off-record, as they wish. Touring Iraq with me, as well as briefings by U.S. officers and meetings with Iraqis, would provide an accurate and nuanced account of the progress and challenges ahead, so that the Senators might have a highly informed perspective on this most critical issue. Our civilian leaders need to make decisions based on the best information available. The...

CSM Jeff Mellinger is out there still "Walking the Line." He did the longest continuous tour in Iraq that I have ever seen: about 2.5 years without a break except for normal leave. And he was seriously out in the red zone. I drove about 4,000 miles with him within Iraq checking on our servicemen and women, Walking the Line, and that was a tiny fraction of the work he did. And so he came back to the United States and is stationed in Washington D.C., but CSM Mellinger's duties have taken him back to Iraq and Afghanistan. I got...

“Why aren’t we hearing about this in the news?” asks Alisyn Camerota. Well, increasingly we are, most notably in the pages of the righty blogosphere’s favorite whipping boy. CNN traditionally has been good about reporting gains too, including having Yon himself on to explain them. As I write this, this story is beaming out to AP affiliates worldwide. The problem with the coverage is that it takes spectacular gains, like the Iraqi army rolling onto Mookie’s home turf in Sadr City, to break through the media narrative while even minor setbacks, which fit the narrative, are easily assimilated and thus...

Michael has posted the first chapter of his book online in PDF. You can download a copy at the link.

Many readers have complained that Michael Moore, in the conduct of his latest crusade against whatever he is against this month, has illegally used one of my photos on the banner of his website. Mr. Moore is not the first to have done so, and my readers can get pretty upset when it happens. My lawyer has demanded that Mr. Moore take it down. I usually freely grant use of my work to truthful, peaceful, non-commercial, non-political outlets. For instance, a church group wanted to use one of my photos for their congregation. I was honored and gave it to...

That’s because it’s a country striving for normality, whose normal aspects rarely make their way into media reports that highlight violence, mayhem, and failure. On TV, Iraq looks like a nation of masked, gun-toting fanatics, but in person, one finds friendliness, solidarity, and reasonableness amid the chaos. “Just because Iraqis have ‘Allahu Akbar’ on their flag,” Yon writes, “doesn’t mean they’re going to blow up the World Trade Center any more than ‘In God We Trust’ means we’re going to attack Communist China.” “Iraq does not hate America,” he insists. “If they hated us, I’d be urging an immediate troop...

Michael Yon is one of those unusual Americans who emerge in wartime to do the jobs that need to be done. The job he is doing is covering combat in Iraq at the gritty, confusing and valiant level of close combat, and doing so with honesty, passion and professional expertise. His new book, "Moment of Truth in Iraq," testifies to that. Yon isn't World War II's Ernie Pyle, he's the Global War on Terror's Michael Yon. This is a different war with a very different media environment. Yon "self-embedded" with U.S. combat units in 2005 -- paying his own way...

All three are doing well but we’d like to see them doing better. Too bad Fox & Friends didn’t have more time to chat with him, especially as regards Petraeus moving over to Centcom. Yon’s been insisting for two years now that it’s Afghanistan, not Iraq, where we’re in the most trouble; he’s obviously pleased to see the general kicked upstairs and into another theater, but it’s unclear from the brief exchange here what he thinks Petraeus will or should do differently.

You may never have seen either of those pictures before. If so, you are not alone. "American combat soldiers don't want pity." Yon says, "They're ready to fight to the end; they just don't want it to be for naught. They have been fighting for two nations, one of which didn't seem to notice. The Iraqis noticed." "We can win this war," Yon declares. "And if we do it will be a victory of the same magnitude as the fall of the Soviet Union. It will not be a victory for the Republican Party. It will not be a victory...

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today. I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous. The change...

Michael Yon called on his satellite phone to talk about what's going on in Iraq. I recorded it and it's up here for your listening pleasure -- nothing fancy, just a quick recording posted less than 20 minutes after it happened. Click here to listen. A few key points: (1) It's likely to get worse before it's better; (2) No one seems to doubt Iranian backing for the violence; (3) This isn't about religion, it's about money and power; and (4) Unlike Al Qaeda in the north, this isn't so much a fight to the finish as violence as a...