Michael Totten is in Baghdad reporting what many of us suspected for a long, long time, via Glenn Reynolds:

After having spent several days Baghdad’s Green Zone and Red Zone, I still haven’t heard or seen any explosions. It’s a peculiar war. It is almost a not-war. Last July’s war in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon was hundreds of times more violent and terrifying than this one. Explosions on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border were constant when I was there.

You’d think explosions and gunfire define Iraq if you look at this country from far away on the news. They do not. The media is a total distortion machine. Certain areas are still extremely violent, but the country as a whole is defined by heat, not war, at least in the summer. It is Iraq’s most singular characteristic. I dread going outside because it’s hot, not because I’m afraid I will get hurt...

Baghdad is gigantic and sprawling. It looks much less ramshackle from the air than I expected. Individual cities-within-a-city are home to millions of people all by themselves. The sheer enormity of the place puts the almost daily car bomb attacks into perspective. The odds that you personally will be anywhere near the next car bomb or IED are microscopic.

Michael's report from Baghdad is breathtaking.

Read it all HERE.

Duh, if it Bleeds it Leads.

I remember reading a letter written by a soldier in Iraq to FOX News, CNN, CBS and the Trinity Network (only Trinity would read it on air) saying that the media was blatantly lying about what was going on in Iraq, the man went on to describe an incident where his patrol was fired upon, nobody was injured, and his unit returned to base that evening to see themselves on the news with the headline claiming "Two soldiers killed in Shootout" when nobody had been injured. The letter also claimed that according to the media's death toll (ie number of times a death was reported) the death toll in Iraq was almost 10,000 and counting. The writer was obviously upset and I thought it odd that the only channel that aired this story was a Christian programming network.

This letter was written back in May, 2004 not June, 2007.

Of course the media distorts and fabricate reports.

However this Journalist is constantly escorted by soldiers and sleeping in highly secured compounds and security zones. These extreme security measures indicate one thing: Very High Risk and danger. Try to live in the red zone next time Mr. Totten.

A.) CABAL, he said he had been in the Red Zone. B.) The US Military probably maintains similar policies at our installations in your country and anywhere else around the world because it is still a military base which must be kept secure at all times, not a ****ing Wal-Mart where people can come and go as they please.

Seems like this guy is an Indie reporter with no affiliation to a Media company. So he's probably not gonna get embedded. Which means he's gonna be left to his devices pretty much.