"Inside Iraq"

You've probably noticed that McClatchey Newspapers, the artists formerly known as Knight-Ridder, have been doing national security reporting that, despite some very fine efforts by contenders at the prestige papers, tends to make the competition look embarassingly bad by comparison for years now. Well, via Jim Henley here comes an eye-opening blog they've set up by the Iraqi journalists working for the McClatchey Baghdad bureau:

I was called from home to be told that a nephew of mine was killed in the explosion in the city center. The explosion went off in a central, much frequented market, so there was no doubt it was targeting civilians. Then they called me to say it may not be him after all because there was no way to identify what was left ... only his cell phone in the pants' pocket.

Now I'm waiting, fearfuly, for confirmation either way.

The problem doesn't end there.

If it isn't him, it's someone's son anyway. But if it is him ... whom are we willing to risk going to the Morgue to receive the remains?? If and when we receive him ... where do we burry him?? Almost none who take the path to Abu Ghraib Cemetary return unscathed.

Think about that.