The Iraqi constitution

My friend, Doctor J, recently posted a link to the blog of an "independent informed observer" of the war in Iraq. This journalist is named Michael Yon. I encourage you to read the post entitled "Purple Fingers." It'll take just a couple minutes.

While I've stayed up with current events lately mainly via the local newspaper, cnn.com, and NPR radio, I found this perspective both startling and refreshing. "Purple Fingers" has evidently been recently published in The Weekly Standard.

Did Michael Yon go to journalism school? Probably not. Does his personal story encompass the full essence and scope of the work in Iraq? Is it conservative propaganda? No, it's simply a story. A story that is highly personal and captures the thoughts and emotions of one caught up in the swirl of history-in-the-making. And it exudes a sense of hope that I really haven't seen in traditional media.

Yet it's a realistic hope. One that recognizes that 2,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. One that knows the price of freedom. This was a price the colonial Americans knew well, and one that the Tennessee Volunteers nobly helped to pay in the fight for Texas Independence.

I guess the thing I appreciated was the overarching meaning that Yon's post gave to the suffering and death that we're all well aware of. He puts himself in harm's way to tell his story. But being there in the midst of danger, he witnesses first-hand the snaking lines at the polls and the purple fingers of Iraqi voters casting their ballot for freedom.