From American kids in Iraq, the blogs of war

'A Marine blogger who calls himself Captain B is describing the scruffy four-foot Christmas tree at his base in Anbar province, west of Baghdad: "Lacking ornaments for the most part, we used bullets, cigars, Marlboro packs and other things we like and hung them on the tree. It looks like a freaking train wreck but it's our train wreck."

An Army officer who signs on as Lieutenant K is blogging from another base in Anbar province. He has a Christmas tree, too, with what he calls a nice dark touch. "There is a belt of .50-caliber ammunition placed carefully in a ring around the bottom, reflecting the multicolored lights off its brass casings. It's actually quite beautiful." A 22-year-old hip-hop loving Marine who calls himself sup3rman83 writes: "We had a sandstorm last night!! I figure since I can't have a white Christmas, I'll settle for a sandy one."

When politicians talk about soldiers in Iraq, they will often say with great solemnity, "Thank you for your service." America does owe its troops a huge debt, but that phrase rankles, somehow. It sounds so pious, as if the troops are off serving in a monastery. But these are mostly young American kids - joking, cursing, blowing out their eardrums with rock music, asking anyone who will listen why they got stuck in this hellhole. And then doing their jobs."
Daily Star

Thanks Fayrouz, I guess the secret is out. Nice to see that the MSM is discovering milblogs, hopefully they will help bring them to a larger audience.