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[Prospero]

link

It's pretty intense. If you read nothing else, read the entry from Thursday, August 5.

 

[DSN2K]

holy shit, good read thanks.

 

[Slo]

Wow, that was intense.

 

[Malakhov]

Good read, thanks. That blog is now in my bookmarks.

 

[retardboy]

Very good read!

 

[clipunderground]

Jesus Christ! I feel for this guy. =(

 

[Funky Papa]

Great read, thanks for the link Prospero.

 

[Poody]

wow the way he described it was like a scene taken from black hawk down.

 

[MrPing1000]

great read very interesting. I find war to be horrible yet extremely intriguing

 

[Lil' Dice]

and there was a bunch of people in all black armed with AK's over by the bridge in front of the Mosul Hotel. Fuck. I overheard one of our iraqi interpreter say in broken English, "Give me gun, I want to kill these motherfuckers!"

This guy is my hero...

 

[MrPing1000]

This guy is my hero...

I read that as well and thought "Damn that dude is cool"

 

[ScientificNinja]

Christ that was intense.

On a related note, for something like this, I suggest a little Matthew Reilly. He writes like shit, but he writes just like that blog. Start with Ice Station, then Area 7, then Scarecrow.

 

[Prospero]

Now that I've read most of the archives, I probably learned more about the war in Iraq from that blog than I did from most American journalists.

 

[Makura]

QUESTION: There are several websites which detail the lies of Michael Moore. Do soldiers read them, are they beginning to realize the extent of the lie foisted on the American people? Finally if you had to put numbers on it: In your experience, what percentage of soldiers there support the war? -Barbara Pietrowski
ANSWER: The internet here costs two bucks an hour to use, I think soldiers would rather spend their money and time chatting and e-mailing their loved ones, than waste it checking out anti-michael moore websites. Almost all the soldiers I know here are very anti-moore anyways. I would say a lot more soldiers here support the war, than bitch about it.

That's good to hear.

 

[Makura]

I can't say anything negative about my Commander In Chief, so I wont. But I also can't vote for a person who threw his medals at the White House. You just don't do something like that. Like, if I did something like that, to protest this war, that would be a total slap in the face to all my brothers in my Platoon, all the people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the people who lost their lives here, all the POW's, all the Vets, all the guys in all the other branches, and all my Drill Sgt's at Benning, and I wouldn't do something like that to them. It's hard enough as it is. Disagree with me all you want on this, but that's just how I feel.
The soldiers I know in the Army who are voting for Kerry in this election (which is a lot more than people would think) are voting for him because they're pissed off at Bush. They're pissed off because of Stop Loss, tour extensions, underestimating the amount of troops needed for Iraq, the Weapons of Mass destruction thing, the legitimacy of coming to Iraq, and they feel Kerry might also get us out of here faster. Stuff like that.
The soldiers I know who are voting for Bush are voting for him because they support him 110% on his Global War On Terrorism, and there is no shadow of a doubt that we did the right thing coming to Iraq. They feel Bush is doing a great job so far out here. A lot of the guys remember what happened to the military the last time a Democrat was in office. The guys I know who served in the military during the Clinton years, tell me all sorts of horror stories about the budget cuts. How they couldn't get any good training done, because they had no money for ammunition or anything. In training, if they ran out of bullets to fire, they would yell "Bang! Bang! Bang!" or yell "Budget Cuts! Budget Cuts! Budget Cuts!" to simulate shots being fired. Since Bush has been in office, we've never had those kinds of problems and there has been nothing but improvements in the military, we've had a couple small pay raises, and the quality of life has gone extremely up for people in the military.
And then there's people like me, who, even though he's kind of a nut, just might vote for Ralph Nader, just because he's the F-U vote.

Quote Of The Day: "Vote?! Our job is to protect Democracy, not be a part of it!"

What's up with the all black wardrobe anyway? Are these guys like Goth Terrorists or something?

Hehe, I love this guy.

 

[FightyF]

I found that extremely sad, personally.

 

[Makura]

His site needs an acronym guide CO, FOB, MRE, RPG, CO, TC, NCO...sheesh.

 

[Alcibiades]

too bad he won't get to since Nader didn't make the California ballot...

You'd think the current debate on same-sex marriage would motivate some in that part of the country since Nader is the only one that would actively go for civil unions and/or marriage, but I guess right now it's about lining up for Kerry no matter what...

 

[FightyF]

Now that I've read most of the archives, I probably learned more about the war in Iraq from that blog than I did from most American journalists.

I agree, it's enlightening stuff, especially when compared to what the media offers. At the same time, I find it odd that he would be allowed to write this kind of stuff without it being monitored or censored.

 

[Makura]

I guess what I find frustrating is how even the fight sounded. We're putting these boys in too much danger I think. Why are we fighting these people soldier to soldier? We should be overwhleming the insurgents and terrorists with superior force.

 

[Gruco]

Great read. Better coverage than the cable news networks combined.

[skeptic]I just hope it isn't some random guy making it all up[/skeptic]

 

[Fusebox]

How do we know this is real? I've read reports of fake soldier blogs before, and we even had that fake beheading on Al Jazeera TV too.

This isnt me being a whiney sceptic btw, it's a serious question, what steps could I take to find out if this is real or not?

 

[ghostface]

I guess what I find frustrating is how even the fight sounded. We're putting these boys in too much danger I think. Why are we fighting these people soldier to soldier? We should be overwhleming the insurgents and terrorists with superior force.

Yes, you're right. The best way to show a nation that you're there to help them is by dropping a 5,000 pound bomb in an urban and heavily populated area so that you can flush out a few bad guys. Yes.

 

[Kobun Heat]

His site needs an acronym guide CO, FOB, MRE, RPG, CO, TC, NCO...sheesh.

Uh... Commanding Officer... Friend of Bill... Meal Ready to Eat... Role Playing Game... I think two of those might be right.

 

[Prospero]

How do we know this is real? I've read reports of fake soldier blogs before, and we even had that fake beheading on Al Jazeera TV too.

This isnt me being a whiney sceptic btw, it's a serious question, what steps could I take to find out if this is real or not?

I actually thought at first that it might be a hoax myself. The factors that made me decide that it isn't are:

--The extensive use of acronyms, used in the casual way that someone in the military would use them, not in the way that a civilian armchair general writing about the military would use them. (Much of my immediate family is retired from the US Army, by the way.) There's a subtle difference, but there's a difference.

--The political viewpoint, or, more precisely, the lack of one. You can cherry-pick quotes here and there to make it look like everyone over there is in support of the war, or you can cherry-pick quotes to show that everyone over there is having a miserable time. But it's pretty clear that what the author of the blog has done is try his best to distance himself from the political issue and do his job as a soldier. Still, he sometimes seems to question what he's doing, even if he doesn't want to say it openly. (The entry in the blog describing how many soldiers are refusing to vote outright in this election, rather than vote for either Bush or Kerry, was one of the saddest things in it.) If you were going to forge a blog, you'd probably slant it so that either it was 100% pro-war, or 100% anti-war: you probably wouldn't try to be objective about it and just report what you saw, as this guy seems to be trying to do (and which much of the mainstream media hasn't managed to do as well as I'd like).

--The blog has a lot of detail, but at the same time, the guy writing it clearly isn't a trained creative writer. He almost never uses paragraph indentations, his spelling and grammar are loaded with errors, and there are times when he doesn't clearly explain what he's seeing. I don't think that someone with a relatively limited command of the language would be able to make up all those details, and I don't think that someone who'd have the training to pull all those details out of thin air would also be able to fake that kind of language--they'd go for the picturesque, Anthony Swofford style instead. I'm not saying that in order to criticize his writing style--he's writing to tell people what he sees, not to entertain. But the way in which it's written lends it additional credibility.

EDIT: An article in the Tacoma News Tribune (link), dated August 10, verifies the blogger's August 5 story with multiple sources.

 

[Tool]

All the "reality" in the blogs could still be crafted by a writer. Perhaps even an ex-military person who would know tendancies of how to write "believably" in a war zone.

Not to say it ISN'T real, but nowadays you really don't know anymore. There are many people out there with many agendas.

 

[Prospero]

All the "reality" in the blogs could still be crafted by a writer. Perhaps even an ex-military person who would know tendancies of how to write "believably" in a war zone.

Not to say it ISN'T real, but nowadays you really don't know anymore. There are many people out there with many agendas.

Sure, the blog's anonymous, but the August 10 article I linked above corroborates what the blogger said on August 5, using interviews with his brigade's deputy commander, the father of a wounded soldier who's mentioned in the blog by name, and an additional news release out of Fort Lewis. I'm as quick to be skeptical as anybody, but the blogger would have to have magical powers to have written that blog entry five days ago (an entry that points out errors in a CNN article published on August 5), and have it check out 100% against an article published today. Unless you think he's John Titor, he's got to be the real thing.

 

[Makura]

Yes, you're right. The best way to show a nation that you're there to help them is by dropping a 5,000 pound bomb in an urban and heavily populated area so that you can flush out a few bad guys. Yes.

That's not what I meant. Sheesh.

 

[Makura]

Did anybody read todays entry? It's really good. The guy thought he was going to be censored but it turns out his CO is really cool about the blog.

 

[Tool]

Sure, the blog's anonymous, but the August 10 article I linked above corroborates what the blogger said on August 5, using interviews with his brigade's deputy commander, the father of a wounded soldier who's mentioned in the blog by name, and an additional news release out of Fort Lewis. I'm as quick to be skeptical as anybody, but the blogger would have to have magical powers to have written that blog entry five days ago (an entry that points out errors in a CNN article published on August 5), and have it check out 100% against an article published today. Unless you think he's John Titor, he's got to be the real thing.

Points taken. If it's a fake it's extremely convincing and well thought out.

 

[Seth C]

His site needs an acronym guide CO, FOB, MRE, RPG, CO, TC, NCO...sheesh.

Well, off the top of my head I can tell you that...

CO = Commanding Office
MRE = Meal Ready to Eat
RPG = Rocket Propelled Grenade
NCO = Non-Commissioned Officer
TC = Take Cover?
FOB = Could be Field of Battle OR Forward Operating Base?

 

[DaCocoBrova]

The natives are referred to as Hajis??

Is it OK to chuckle at that?

(Please god, I don't want to fucking die)

lol! Was an expletive really needed?

 

[Lil' Dice]

The natives are referred to as Hajis??

Is it OK to chuckle at that?




lol! Was an expletive really needed?

It's not wrong at all, that's why our boys are in Iraq, to defend your right to freely express yourself....