Welcome to the "almost" suck

Christian Lowe, a good friend and a great reporter, has set up a blog called Nom de Guerre to chronicle his travels in Iraq, where he'll be for the next several weeks. He knows what he's talking about, he's got a good eye, and his judgment is right on, so it'll be very interesting to read his dispatches. You'll thank yourself if you bookmark his page or, better yet, sign up for his RSS feed. Here's a bit from his layover in Kuwait:

Today we’re doing a bit of last minute admin stuff — Rob’s buying a pair of “shower shoes” at the chi chi Burkenstock shop downstairs; I’m trying to convince him to buy the fruitiest ones they have so the Marines will make fun of him “yeah, the bright yellow ones look awsome! No No, they won’t think it’s wierd, man. Don’t worry…” (he he he)…And I’m writing emails and updating my contacts and stuff. We’ll repack our stuff (we had to cross-pack a bunch of gear to make the maximum weight requirements for our commercial flight) then meet with the military guy arranging our flight out. Supposedly we meet the KBR (contractor) bus tonight in the wee hours to drive to some American airbase here, then fly at “o-dark thirty” into Baghdad. Then we’re supposed to link up with another group at the airport who will load us onto a Mad Max-esque armored bus appropriately called the “Rhino” that will take us into the “Green Zone” where we’ll get our press credentials…then we are due to fly to Ramadi to meet up with the Marines on the 4th.

It's going to be dynamite reporting.