Normally I'm a one-man band in Iraq. I head off to see what I can find and travel from unit to unit, place to place until I have a feel for what is happening and enough video to make a few documentaries.

This trip is different. I'm travelling with LTC Steve Russell who commanded the Battalion at Tikrit in 2003 that captured Saddam. Along with us is a Brian Bennett, a writer who covered LTC Russell's unit for TIME Magazine.

Dinner last night in Kuwait by itself was worth the price of admission.

The knowledge of and points of view of Iraq and warfare around that table were worthy of an academic seminar.

LTC Russell, a student of military history, implemented the current COIN strategy to great effect in 2003. The techniques applied to Fallujah, Ramadi and Baghdad during the Surge were put in place in Tikrit at the beginings of the insurgency.

Brian Bennett is an astute observer with a deep sense of history. Truly more of a writer and analyst than a transcriber of events and an adventurer of the first rate who would have fit in well with the Victorian era Royal Geographic Society.

It is rare that I feel I am amatuer in Iraq, but with these two I feel as if I am being called up from the Minors to play with the Majors.

A Battalion Commander of one of the most storied units ever to serve in Iraq, a world class writer for a venerable institution and me, a self styled documentary filmmaker.

This is gonna be fun.

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