We have been busy preparing our families and ourselves for the journey. Our overarching goals are two-fold:

1) to report on how the troops perceive mainstream media coverage of the war (with a particular focus on the wire services relying on local stringers); and

2) to report on progress and interaction between U.S. troops and Iraqi Army trainees.

- from MichelleMalkin.com

Note: I was as surprised as anyone when Michelle Malkin offered to allow me to publish her personal diaries of her trip to Iraq. To quote her, the decision was based on her desire to “show the world a side of Michelle Malkin that they might not have seen,” and “because I don’t want the personal stuff on my own website, for branding reasons.”

“But mostly,” she went on, “for deniability.”

Whatever. I am not one to look a gift horse in her (eerily horse-like) teeth. FA will happily give itself over to as many diary entries as Ms. Malkin chooses to share with us.

- Adam

—

January 3, 2007

Dear Diary;

What to pack? The so-called reporters of the AP never tell you this in their sham-reports, but one cannot simply be a floating, omniscient speck hovering over the “action” of the “story.” There’s an actual person there, a person with wants, needs, desires, and opinions - the person writing the story, seeing the action. The so-called “reporters” of the AP and the New York Times choose to pretend that such a person does not exist. And yet that’s what they call “reporting.” No wonder those dimwits can’t identify their sources - they can’t even identify themselves.

Well, not me. I’m going to give you the whole story, and a lot of that story - by definition - is going to involve the storyteller. Who is me.

I’m going into Iraq to learn the truth about this “Jamil Hussein,” the supposed “source” for the supposed “AP.” I intend to find out if he exists, reveal what his real name is, where his family lives, and what their home security system is like. As a police officer working in an extremely violent zone and cooperating with the international press on telling tales of the most extreme acts of sectarian violence, what exactly is he afraid of? Why hide behind some kind of fabricated identity? Why not come forward?

I intend to find him, drag his identity into the light, and then go home.

I’ll also be doing what so many so-called reporters are afraid to do - learn the truth by being embedded with the military. History has proven that the press can get the most balanced and complete information when they are explicitly reporting from one side of a conflict and allow their movements to be governed by that side. You can look it up.

Because I intend to tell the side of the story that the AP doesn’t want you to hear - the side of the story in which brave, razor-sharp American soldiers struggle every day to bring democracy to a harsh and unyielding country, where their calloused hands and bruised, lean bodies ache for home, comfort, and yes- affection. I intend to meet these soldiers, live amongst them, spend nights ’round their campfires, learning their hopes and dreams, maybe helping them dress a non-icky wound or two, sharing some camaraderie, a surreptitious swig from a flask, and - if necessary - a sleeping bag on those cold, cold Baghdad nights.

To my husband Jesse - I’ll miss you and be thinking of you often.

And so, I’m off - packing only what I can fit into three suitcases. Having tried on my absolutely necessary desert camo outfits, which after a few alterations look - I’ll say it - damned good, I’m ready to roll.

All right - Bryan is honking the horn outside and the journey begins! Jamil Hussein, or whoever you are, look out! Here I come.