Andrew Olmsted's view of the Iraq war

An American army officer who blogged for a US newspaper website from Iraq was killed on 3 January 2008 in an attack in the north of the country. The US army said Major Andrew Olmsted died with another US soldier when insurgents attacked with small arms near Sadiyah, 100 miles north-east of Baghdad.

Olmsted, who had been based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, began blogging after his unit was sent to Iraq with the mission of helping train the Iraqi Army. A sniper killed Olmsted as he was trying to talk three suspected insurgents into surrendering. A sniper's bullet also cut down Capt. Thomas J. Casey. They were in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

Before he left for Iraq in July, he penned a final entry about his death in the event that he did not make it back, and this was published by a friend posthumously on his website.

Here's the last blog Olmsted wrote before he died, written on 26 December.

It's not at all easy to find the "final entry" post, but it's currently available here.

The full text is also in the next post to this blog.