Several of my daily-read blogs have been linking to the “Letter from Iraq” published on Friday by TIME.com. If you haven’t run across this yet, go check it out; it’s definitely worth a minute of your time.

The letter is a series of observations from an anonymous Marine officer who pulls no punches in describing his life in the middle of the war zone. Although I’m sure both sides of the poltical spectrum here at home can (and will) try to spin this to support their views, the letter itself, read in its entirety, strikes me as remarkably non-partisan, honest, revealing, and, ultimately, quite moving. It is also, in places, very funny:

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

 

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”

As far as I can tell, this letter — unlike some of the supposed “real stories of our troops” that float around in e-mail form — is for real.