Michael Yon is embedded with our guys and reporting from the battle in Baquba. His pre-battle post, Be Not Afraid, was riveting. Operation Arrowhead Ripper: Day One is more so. Here’s a short excerpt:

The enemy in Baqubah is as good as any in Iraq, and better than most. That’s saying a lot. But our guys have been systematically trapping them, and have foiled some big traps set for our guys. I don’t want to say much more about that, but our guys are seriously outsmarting them. Big fights are ahead and we will take serious losses probably, but al Qaeda, unless they find a way to escape, are about to be slaughtered. Nobody is dropping leaflets asking them to surrender. Our guys want to kill them, and that’s the plan.

Sounds like a good plan to this ol’ Okie! Our prayers are with all you guys, Michael. Now, readers, follow that link and read it all — don’t come back until you do now, ya hear?

[Addition]

In a follow up post, Arrowhead Ripper: Surrender or Die Yon shows that even in this day of modern communications, during military operations you still have a chance to experience the big SNAFU.

All those reporters flooding out here are about to flood into difficult reporting terrain. Cell phones do not work in Baqubah.

Public Affairs should have known this months ago. Valuable stories about our soldiers and the battle are being lost and will never be filed because reporters, after a long day of being on the battlefield, cannot make a simple phone call, or file a story. Why be here? It’s pretty dangerous, and insurance is expensive. I had to skip a mission this morning because I cannot make communications, and am down to filing stories on the fly again without time for editing. There is no other way to keep the flow open, and if you are reading this, it’s only after I’ve wasted hours trying to upload it. Hours I could have been with our soldiers, telling about their days in one of the most important battles of this war.

Godspeed, Michael — and good luck to all in Operation Arrowhead Ripper!

Technorati Tags: Michael Yon, Operation Arrowhead Ripper, Baqubah, al Qaeda

[h/t: Michelle Malkin] From Fox News:

Chechen Warlord Behind Terror Attacks Killed in Russia

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, the purported author of modern Russia’s worst terrorist attacks, has been killed, the head of the Federal Security Service said Monday.

FSB head Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin that Basayev had been killed overnight in Ingushetia, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Basayev, 41, claimed responsibility for some of Russia’s worst terror attacks, including the seizure of some 800 hostages in a Moscow theater in 2002, the 2004 school hostage taking in Beslan that killed 331, and the seizure of about 1,000 hostages at a hospital in Budyonnovsk that killed about 100.

The butcher of Beslan’s children earned himself a slow-grisly-painful death — hope he got what he deserved! (db)

Technorati Tags: Shamil Basayev, Beslan, Vladimir Putin, Chechen Butcher Killed, Fox News

If you are as tired as I am with the preening, pouting, caterwalling Leftists and their constant anti-war bleating, then take a few and visit Michelle Malkin’s Video site Hot Air and celebrate the timely death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi at the hands of the U.S. Air Force and most likely some Special Forces on the ground. It’s got a trippy little hard-grunge soundtrack and you get to relish the initial explosion several times. Morbid? I think not. Think Forth of July for real — with the fireworks getting the job done!

However, she does interrupt the merrymaking several times to showcase the appalling nutter responses to Zarqawi’s death. Hard to believe, but some right here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. would rather that Zarqawi still be out there rampaging and killing, rather than the Bush administration achieve any form of victory over our foes in the Global War On Terror. Pathetic. Even the B.B.C. would rather that Zarqawi still be alive rather than accord a victory to Tony Blair’s and Great Britian’s efforts. To a nutter, killing a terrorist is such a terrible thing.

Probably the most pathetic, least understandable statement that I have heard recently was on Thursday’s Michael Medved radio show, when Michael was interviewing the father of Nick Berg, who was slaughtered by Zarqawi himself, via beheading by serrated knife while Berg was still alive and videotaped, which still is available all over the Internet and is sold in the Arab world as a pro-Jihadi video. His father, peace activist, pacifist and candidate for a Delaware House seat told Medved that he was not glad that Zarqawi had been killed, and that he thought that George Bush was much worse than Saddam Hussein had ever been. I think that Medved was actually stunned. Since I can’t find a transcript of that exchange, I’ll just give you Berg’s quotes that he gave to the AP, as found on the CBS News site.

“I think al-Zarqawi’s death is a double tragedy,” Michael Berg told The Associated Press after learning a U.S. airstrike had killed the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. “His death will incite a new wave of revenge. George Bush and al-Zarqawi are two men who believe in revenge.”
(…)
Berg said the blame for most deaths in Iraq should be placed on President Bush, who he said is “more of a terrorist than Zarqawi.”

“Zarqawi felt my son’s breath on his hand as held the knife against his throat. Zarqawi had to look in his eyes when he did it,” Berg added, pausing to collect himself. “George Bush sits there glassy-eyed in his office with pieces of paper and condemns people to death. That to me is a real terrorist.”

Reading this makes me so very angry, I’m at a loss for words. This man’s moral compass is so broken, he no longer has one — if he ever did. I can understand that grief causes odd behavior, but this is so morally offensive that it is an outrage. The brutal slayer of his son, Nick, has been brought to justice, and his father can do nothing but continue to blame Bush — for everything. It’s Bush Derangement Syndrome on a pedestal — in the full light of a bright day. The Left would say, “This man’s been through Hell, he’s lost his son, you have no right to castigate him for expressing his anti-war feelings and beliefs!” Well, he does have a right to his opinion, and I have a right to think that he’s full of it — that his opinion stinks! If his kind is going to represent the people of Deleware in Congress, then a pox on Delaware!

It’s just like on FoxNews Sunday this AM. Rep. Jane Harmon, another wonderful California politician, said to the effect that we should all be glad that Zarqawi is gone, and now let’s play like sheep herders and get the flock out of Iraq. Yeah Jane, plays great in Venice with all the old hippies and peaceniks. Tell that to the Iraqis that desperately want us to stay and help them succeed with building a unified-peaceful-democratic Iraq. Yeah, I know. We don’t get to hear about them very much, thanks to the anti-war, anti-Bush MSM’s efforts to downplay any good that our troops have done in the war effort, and over-play any possible bad. Speaking of which, Hugh Hewitt has some choice things to say about the MSM and its overage of the Haditha event and Congressman Murtha’s statements condemning the Marines before the investigation has completed — before any charges have been filed.

John Murtha is quoted as a source for details on the Hamandiya investigation, which would make the second instance in which the retired Marine colonel turned Congressman would have been providing details to the press on investigations underway against Marines.
(…)
As I noted yesterday, the public –including Congressman Murtha– has no idea what happened in Haditha, and the incredible recklessness with which Congressman Murtha launched his public campaign against the Haditha Marines was quickly copied on the left.
(…)
Even if charges are brought against Marines in both Haditha and Hamandiya and convictions secured, Congressman Murtha’s conduct that has prejudged these men will always remain an outrageous political intervention into the military’s criminal justice system. If any of those implicated by Murtha are not charged, or are charged and acquitted, Murtha’s conduct will be revealed as disgraceful. [emph mine]

But that’s characteristic of the Left. It was on display this AM as Juan Williams told Chris Wallace that the American people are ready for us to get out of Iraq, now — period — the end. The Left wants to cut & run, bug out, retreat and call it victory. They have no stomach to stay the course and actually win this battle, let alone the intestinal fortitude to prosecute a determined, effective war on global terror. They pine away for the good ol’ days of the Clinton White House, with raging stock markets based on non-existent value, Chinese spys stealing our most effective weapons systems, and hum jobs for everybody! Trite? OK, busted. But, oh-so-very-true.

But hey, how did I get on such a rant? We were celebrating, weren’t we?

Woo Hoo! Zarqawi’s worm food! Woo Hoo! (db)

Technorati Tags: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Michael Berg, Congressman Murtha, Fox News Sunday, Hugh Hewitt