Iraq. Mosul. 2017. Mail call at an American artillery base in Mosul. I was embedded with the American forces for a few hours one day during the battle of Mosul in 2017. That was the extent of the time I was offered, and I was escorted wherever I went. It was a radically different experience from the years I spent embedded with the U.S. military in the earlier days of the Iraq and Afghan wars. Nearly anyone with any kind of press credentials could embed with American forces, and once joined with a unit, you could tag along on almost any mission with few restrictions. I met a pleasant salmon fisherman from Alaska who occasionally wrote for a local alternative monthly paper. I met an odd fellow who alluded vaguely to a news website he’d started and then immediately shifted the conversation to tracking down his Filipino ex-wife. She’d left him and was working at a nail salon on an American mega-base in Balad. He was planning to win her back.