If you want to know what it's really like...

[dreamshark]

I remember telling a few people about the Sandbox Blog project and promising to link to it, but then I forgot. It's a group blog of some kind for people on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, or recently returned from there. I think it was started by Garry Trudeau of "Doonesbury" fame. Or maybe he just publicized it. Anyway, all kinds of men and women post to it intermittently. They rarely, if ever, talk about the politics of the wars. They talk about what they are experiencing. Sometimes it's disturbing, sometimes it's uplifting, sometimes just plain interesting. Many posts are personal, like this one. Others that I've found fascinating talked about unexpected cultural interactions with translators or Afghan clan chiefs. In any case, reading this blog will give you insights you won't get from other sources.

Here's a link to today's entry, one I found very moving.

http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/2008/06/may-i-have-this.html