The Birds of Baghdad

The always worthwhile Michael Yon has a new dispatch up.

The girlfriends and wives: I have since heard many stories of their stresses and travails at home with the kids and the bills and the medical problems and the incredible duress they must face alone—and the damn news: four troops were killed when . . . —and finally there is the knock on the door and she holds her breath and it's only someone delivering a package. Next week there is a knock and she holds her breath but it's only a rip-off artist trying to replace the roof. Next week there is a knock but she breathes easier because she has learned to deal with it, and she opens the door and her husband has no legs. Or he is horribly burned. Or he is dead.