23 Dec. Washington Post - Slogging and Blogging Through Iraq.

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.

The military blogs coming out of Iraq are some of the most interesting reading I've found this holiday season. Soldiers have sent letters home in every war, but this is the first time civilians back home have been able to read over their shoulders. The best collection I've found is at a Web site called Milblogging.com. It has compiled more than 1,000 military blogs in 22 countries, including 258 coming out of Iraq...