After six years in Iraq, reporter extraordinaire Michael Ware is not sure how to come home.

“I am not the same fucking person,” he tells me. “I am not the same person. I don’t know how to come home.”

Ware’s detractors have painted him as a drunk, a rage-aholic, a partisan. They claim he heckled John McCain at a press conference and accuse him of being a terrorist stooge for airing enemy footage of U.S. troops being gunned down — anything to mark him as, at best, too rough to be trusted or, at worst, outright unhinged. And though he’s still able to perform during his three-and-a-half-minute spots on CNN, it isn’t hard to make a case against him for erratic behavior. Fellow reporters claim Ware has bragged about being drunk on air (he denies it) and has destroyed television equipment during epic tantrums (“Things get broken in bureaus from time to time; it’s just normal wear and tear,” he demurs). He admits to having a terrible time sustaining relationships and once got in an altercation with another man over his former girlfriend (and fellow tabloid fodder) CBS reporter Lara Logan. He can’t sleep and watches trash TV until the sun comes up over Baghdad. In short, he hasn’t been well for a while.

"You lose touch with life. It sounds trite, but I need to find humanity again a little bit. In so many ways, war casts a shadow across you that will never leave, dark places seen that can never be forgotten,” Ware says. “When you get to the point where you come home from a bombing, realize what’s on the soles of your shoes, and can wipe it off without a second thought — it takes its toll. I was on the verge of becoming irretrievable.”

Michael Ware has been one of my favorite correspondents covering the Iraq war since the very beginning of the conflict.

His blunt, no holds barred, method of reporting the horrible things he had seen on the streets of Baghdad and throughout Iraq was both informative and chilling.

He did not seem to kiss up to the military leaders to get access, instead he earned respect and access directly from the soldiers on the ground, the Iraqi citizens, and even the insurgents themselves.

In the past Ware has taken on Joe Lieberman, John McCain, and even George Bush himself. And in every report Ware demonstrated an absolute allegiance to telling the truth, regardless of whose toes he may step on.

Of course one of my favorite stories about Michael Ware was that he had managed to romance the lovely Lara Logan while he was digging up the truth for CNN. The relationship did not end well, as we can imagine what with Ware being under so much stress, but hell it had to be great in the beginning!

Well anyhow I hope that Michael Ware finds peace and harmony in his future because, just like the soldiers he has covered for these past six years, he certainly deserves it.