Telling It Like It Is

Gary Trudeau, author of the satirical comic strip Doonesbury, recently biting in its criticism of the Iraq war, has launched a new forum for reflection on the war. Last week he opened a blog on his website (www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose) for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the site, entitled The Sandbox, it will serve as "a clean, lightly edited debriefing environment" where "the focus is not on policy and partisanship...but on the unlassified details of deployment." And he's gotten some interesting responses.

Posts vary from in topic from the stress of long distance relationships:
"Spouses and significant others don't relate to what the Soldier is going through. They want the text message, phone calls, digital pictures, letters, and hell some probably even want sky writing" -Sgt. Allen

to poetic meditations on their surroundings:
"I think Alfred Hitchcock would have loved this place at night" -Captain Lee Kelly

The posters are conflicted idealogically, but they agree that they deserve to be heard. "Combat Doc" sums it up in his post:
"In the end Joe isn't being heard by the pro [war]s or the anti [war]s. There's good and bad going on there, but the only one who will tell you the truth is the shooter who handed out bread to the children and lead to the Hajj."

The interesting thing about this war is that even with all the tehnology available, especially through the internet, despite the imbedded reporters and soldiers' YouTube videos-- the public still isn't hearing the voice of the soldiers. It's not unified, but it sure seems far better qualified than that of TV's punditocracy. These are our peers, and they're fighting for us, whether we like it or not. Let's listen to them.