From Michael Yon’s latest, and reproduced with his permission, the man with the cigar here is COL Stephen Twitty, aka Sheik Twitty al Ameriki. Go read Yon’s story for the details (and try and hit his tip jar if you can), but this is an amazing picture that, I think, captures a sense of where things are now at in Iraq in a way that the famous Marlboro Man picture became a symbol of the struggle and violence of 2004. Things have changed. Yon adds in an email: “Twitty was even on Oprah once!” Why doesn’t that surprise me.
