On Patrol with Grunts in Iraq

Guardian reporter David Smith is reporting from his tour in Iraq with a U.S. Stryker Brigade. These are fantastic reports which -- to the shock of Guardianistas (the newspaper's famously left-of-center readership) and the horror of Guardian editors -- paint the U.S. soldier in a positive light. It's easy to slag off U.S. troops in Iraq as immature or trigger-happy or bloodthirsty ... until you actually spend time with them and find that's all, well, bollocks.

(The picture currently being used by the Guardian's website to accompany this article shows a US soldier pointing his weapon down a street, getting security, as soldiers tend to do. The picture is taken from an angle and then cropped, though, is such a way that it makes it look like the faceless soldier is pointing his weapon at an Iraqi boy sitting on a stoop nearby. %$#@ing Guardian editors.)