Jee-sus H Christ. If you haven't been following Baghdad Burning, start now with this.

She shook her head and waved away my words of sympathy, "It's ok- really- I'm one of the lucky ones... all they did was beat me."

I don't go in for much of the rah-rah-new-media-paradigm hype about weblogs, but something like this reminds me that at least a little of it is justified. Who else would have told you that story?

Update: because it seems to fit here, and because it should be the point of all the war talk: here is something else about Iraq that you won't see on CNfuckingN. Warning: contains graphic images of Omar Abdul Kader's arm after two AK-47 rounds got done with it. Beware. Spousal unit, this means you.

Update the second: if these two items have whet your appetite for insight into what's actually happening in Iraq, Doc points to a roundup of good sources.