Return to Action

Michael Moore has stopped the copyright infringement on my work, but his attorney has not responded to my attorney’s requests to negotiate a settlement. Out of courtesy, we’ll give Mr. Moore a little more time. But if he refuses to afford us the professional consideration of returning communications, we’ll have to file a lawsuit and meet them in court.

An email came this morning from 1^st Lieutenant Brad Krauss. Brad and his platoon fought hard in many different places in Iraq, and I got to know these veterans during Operation Arrowhead Ripper. They named their Stryker “The General Lee,” after it had saved their lives so many times and kept on rolling. The thing was like Robocop. It would get blasted hard, tires blown off, slat armor dragging the ground, but the mechanics kept fixing the General Lee and it would return to combat usually within 24-48 hours. Finally, it was practically blown to smithereens when a giant bomb detonated directly beneath it. Brad said the General Lee is now returning to a line unit, and he sent this link: “One year later, General Lee rides again” . I’ve seen Strykers take terrific abuse and return to combat within a day or two, but I just couldn’t believe how much beating the General Lee took. If I had a magic wand, I’d send the Army another thousand of those things. And a thousand to the Brits, too.

You’ve got to see the footage inside my Superman dispatch when the General Lee got blasted into the air and crashed onto its side. Please click the Superman link to see the enemy video. Surely you would think the entire crew of American soldiers had been killed, but they all returned to combat nearly immediately. If you look very closely at the video, you can see Brad flying out of the front left hatch like Superman. He didn’t fly far and the General Lee nearly crushed him, but Brad soon returned to combat. Brad said the dispatch I wrote gained major points with his girlfriend, and I was happy to have assisted him on that important front. Now that his tour has ended, he has decided to stay in the Army.

I’m getting back into action myself. Moment of Truth in Iraq hardly made me a rich man, so reader support remains critical to continuing the mission. My next reports from the war will be unembedded; in other words, I will not be with U.S. or Coalition forces, but I will be in some very dangerous places. Therefore, I cannot disclose my locations until after I have departed.

Final update: no Senators have taken me up on the offer to act as a tour guide in Iraq, but the offer stands.

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