The Blog of War

By John

Two weeks ago, I told Matt that I'd have a review of The Blog of War up that evening. If I failed to do so, I said that he could "punch me in the face."

Looks like I'm going to have a sore jaw at the next milblogging conference, heh.

Obviously -as a milblogger- I loved the book. I knew I'd love it before I even received my copy in the mail.

What I failed to understand though was the level to which I would appreciate Matt's creation. As someone who has read milbogs, communicated with many of the authors, and listened to their amazing stories, I thought that my skin would be tough enough to soak in The Blog of War's harrowing first-person narrations.

I was wrong. The stories, from both lifesavers and lifetakers alike, crawl under your skin and stay there for days. Some tales life spirits, some break them. Some make you laugh in the middle of telling a gorey tale about shooting an insurgent in the face, like one of my favorite excerpts, from Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss:

The first man that I killed disturbed me. Not so much for the loss of human life of the whole killing is wrong concept. Not because I wasn't well within my right to do so (self-defense) or because (as any 5-year old will tell you), "he started it."

The first man that I killed I looked in the eye when I shot him. Right dead in the eye. It was acutally my aiming point, but that's beside the point. I did not see the fire of martyrdom. I did not see rage. I saw neither honor vengeance. I saw a look, an emotion that can only be summed up as "Oh Shit!"

The man brought a gun to a gunfight. I brought thirty.

And the sums up the entire complexity of the book in two paragraphs.

Trying my best to shed the natural pro-Blog of War bias that a milblogger is damn near compelled to feel, I honestly think that this was the single most important war book that has been released since The Long War kicked off in September of 01. I don't want you to buy the book simply because I'd like to see it do well. I want you to read it because every American needs to understand the agonies, the sacrifices, the glories, and the bonds of war.

Pro-war, anti-war, neutral...it doesn't matter. The Blog War forces you to shut up, sit down, and listen. Read it. Not matter what your ideology is, these milbloggers will shake it to the core.

October 25, 2006 08:46 PM The Long War

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Comments

It was a long-time coming, John, but a VERY nice review! I have to concur. I've read most of the posts in the book when they were just on the blogs, so I thought the book would be a nice "review". I hadn't planned on the emotional response I had reading them all in one place, or the insightful commentary Matt provided.

AFSister · October 27, 2006 07:40 AM