'I'm going to die,' blogs soldier

'I'm going to die,' blogs soldier
Story Highlights
Army machine gunner Colby Buzzell began blogging from Iraq in 2004

His blog gained media attention for its refreshing, unvarnished candor

The Army encourages active-duty soldiers to blog as a way to educate the public

But soldiers are prohibited from posting details that could compromise troops' safety


I've never felt fear like this. I was like, this is it, I'm going to die. When U.S. Army machine gunner Colby Buzzell began blogging about his combat experiences from Iraq, he wasn't looking for attention. But in the first major war of the Internet age, his visceral, first-hand accounts became a bracing antidote to bloodless news reports.

But his visceral, first-hand accounts were a bracing antidote to dry news reports and bloodless Pentagon news releases. In the first major war of the Internet age, Buzzell and other soldier bloggers in Iraq offered readers around the world unfiltered, real-time glimpses of an ongoing conflict.

"Here's a soldier in a combat zone ... writing about it and posting it on the Internet. I don't think that's ever been done in previous wars," Buzzell said.

"It just provides another perspective that no embedded journalist can ever do," said the veteran, now a freelance writer in San Francisco, California, and the author of "My War: Killing Time in Iraq." "An embedded journalist is just there observing. But a soldier writing about it -- you can't get more embedded than that."
See an interview with Buzzell »
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