WP: The New Ernie Pyles: Cbftw and Sgtlizzie

[Pirate Smile]

The New Ernie Pyles: Cbftw and Sgtlizzie
On Internet Blogs, Soldiers in Iraq Offer Up Inside Story on the War

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 12, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- There were no reporters riding shotgun on the highway north of Baghdad when a roadside bomb sent Sgt. Elizabeth Le Bel's Humvee lurching into a concrete barrier. The Army released a three-sentence statement about the incident in which her driver, a fellow soldier, was killed. Most news stories that day noted it briefly.

But a vivid account of the attack appeared on the Internet within hours of the crash last Dec. 4. Unable to sleep after arriving at the hospital, Le Bel hobbled to a computer and typed 1,000 words of what she called "my little war story" into her Web log, or blog, titled "Life in this Girl's Army," at http://www.sgtlizzie.blogspot.com.

"I started to scream bloody murder, and one of the other females on the convoy came over, grabbed my hand and started to calm me down. She held onto me, allowing me to place my leg on her shoulder as it was hanging free," Le Bel wrote. "I thought that my face had been blown off, so I made the remark that I wouldn't be pretty again LOL. Of course the medics all rushed with reassurance which was quite amusing as I know what I look like now and I don't even want to think about what I looked like then."

Since the 1850s, when a London Times reporter was sent to chronicle the Crimean War, journalists have generally provided the most immediate, first-hand depictions of major conflicts. But in Iraq, service members themselves are delivering real-time dispatches -- in their own words -- often to an audience of thousands through postings to their blogs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081102168.html

edit to add: It does discuss Leonard Clark's blogging and demotion.

[bleever]

1. God bless them, and keep them safe.

:hug:

:patriot:

[Pirate Smile]

2. The end of the article has a little more from the female soldier's blog.

"Many entries are deeply personal. Battered but still able to perform her duties, Le Bel returned to her unit a few days after the roadside bomb attack. She attended the memorial service for her driver, whom she never named, and shared her thoughts with the readers in a Dec. 7 posting:

"I am now deathly afraid of the nightmares I have already seen bits and pieces of. I can see them in my mind when I close my eyes, I see the truck slamming into the wall and it scares me all over again. Why did I walk away from a wreck that killed a comrade and friend?"'

[Ouabache]

3. she has survivor syndrome

and she isn't even home yet.

[Pirate Smile]

4. I guess it is possible to continue to up the anger at the idiocy and

cruelty of the Chicken Hawks who were so anxious to make sure they got this war.

:grr:

edit to add - I don't know if I'm more angry or sad. The emotions seem very close to each other.

[bleever]

5. The bond between the soldiers is incredible, may be the strongest force

between humans that this whole human theater sees.

Person to person, bonding, and vowing their mutual survival, no matter what.


The more that people hear from this point of view, and actually feel this, the weaker the bonds between people and more abstract entities like ideologies, parties, and corporations will be.

We must be the change, as Cindy Sheehan is, and as these brave Americans are.

[Moderator]

6. Moved

reason for move 0 this is " other article" not breaking news - thanks

[Pirate Smile]

7. kick

[Pirate Smile]

8. kick

[frustrated_lefty]

9. Ernie Pyle

to my knowledge, was one of the first real wartime journalists. It's amazing how far we've come.