A Small Battle in the Media War

"As we drive to meet the Merlin helicopter, our vehicle displays a British flag on the dash. We pass teams of British soldiers at Basra Air Station as they conduct morning runs, preparing for the next combat, perhaps only hours away.
Numerous British units are stationed in Basra, including the Queens Royal Lancers, whose motto is “Death or Glory.” There is no assurance of Glory. I spent most of April 2007 with the Brits, which turned out to have been the most deadly month for British forces since the beginning of the war. The loss of any fallen soldier is significant. We lost about a hundred; the Brits lost about a dozen. The word “about” is not used to suggest a casual callousness about the fallen, but for a more specific conveyance: persons who are listed as wounded in action often later succumb.

While progress in Anbar is robust enough to make mainstream news reports, down in southern Iraq, the enemy is resurging. They are well-resourced, resilient and intelligent, and capable of landing hard punches. They recently “shot down” a C-130 with IEDs planted by the landing strip. The enemy may be good, but American and British forces are much better. On my previous two missions with the British Army, with the 2 Rifles first and the next day the Duke of Lancaster Regiment, they killed roughly a total of 40 enemy fighters, and they did so without sustaining a scratch to a British soldier. On the next mission with British forces, the enemy would successfully engage us, taking two British soldiers."
Michael Yon