Blogging is more than an online journal. Blogging is a social media platform. It allows a person to easily share their thoughts with the world and interact with others. The whole nature of blogging is to promote interactivity. For example, PC Mechanic itself is a blog. I (and others) routinely post here regarding technology and anybody can respond to what we say in comments. I also routinely go in and reply to user comments on my posts and this opens up a dialog with all of you.

But, blogging is more than even that. It has the capacity to turn regular people into reporters. And nowhere is that more important than when we’re talking about war. The war in Iraq is a very important event in world history. All of us are subject to traditional news outlets to know what is happening in Iraq. That is very unfortunate. The problem with mainstream news is that you are inherently dealing with bias. Whether it be left-wing bias or right-wing bias, it is bias. It would not be bad if they were open to the fact that such bias exists, but instead they spoonfeed it to you as objective news. That it is not. There is SO much going on in Iraq that you don’t see on the news. Some of what you don’t see is bad news, but most of what you don’t see is good news. News channels need ratings and good news doesn’t seem to bring it in.

Who better to get the real story from than people on the ground. Actual soldiers and people who live there. People who are in Iraq and are blogging about their experiences. As a blogger myself, this type of phenomenon is very touching. It goes to show me the importance of what I do for a living. Not that I sitting here talking about technology all day has nearly the importance to the world of what these guys are doing, but it is about real people communicating to others – without the go-between of a corporate interest who serves to censor.

So, while I might have missed Veterans Day by one day, I thought I would give a big list of 40 links to blogs or our men and women over in Iraq as well as some of the people who live there. Get all viewpoints from people who are experiencing it, not from people who sit in New York City in the A/C.

1. Boots on the Ground
2. Yankee Sailor
3. One Marine’s View
4. Healing Iraq – “Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist”
5. Pro Deo Et Patria – A Chaplain in the U. S. Army serving in Iraq
6. Hamlett Post – News and views of a soldier deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, blogging from Kuwait
7. HNK’s Blog – Weblog of the teen-aged daughter of a doctor and an engineer in Mosul, Iraq
8. Baghdad Burning – “Girl Blog from Iraq… let’s talk war, politics and occupation.”
9. Iraq at a Glance – Weblog from another dentist in Baghdad
10. Tell Me A Secret – Khalid Jarrar blogs from Baghdad about life in Iraq and his recent detention
11. Where Date Palms Grow – Weblog from a dentist in Baghdad
12. A Family In Baghdad – An Iraqi mother and her three sons share their personal diaries (sometimes in Arabic)
13. Accute Politics – A collection of musings on life and the war in Iraq, written from the middle of the Anbar province.
14. T.F. Boggs
15. America’s Son
16. A Day in Iraq – A former soldier’s daily experiences while living and fighting in Iraq.
17. This War and Me – An Online Journal of One Soldier’s Journey On The Frontlines of Iraq
18. Love from the Latrine
19. Outside the Wire
20. The Unlikely Soldier
21. Badger Jake – Former Wisconsin football player now serving in Iraq
22. Bravo Company
23. Destination IRaq
24. Cecil’s Journal
25. The Daily Grind
26. Live in IRaq
27. Sergeant Grumpy
28. Sand Box Sailor
29. Northern Disclosure
30. Not Without My Laptop
31. Dawg’s Eye View
32. My Iraqi Saga
33. 365 And a Wakeup
34. Battlefield Tourist
35. Humbled Infidel
36. Hurry Up and Wait
37. My War Stories
38. Iraq Partii
39. Longest Drill Weekend Ever
40. War Wiskers

Some of these sites have not been updated in awhile because their deployments ended. Can’t blame them there!

The internet is a powerful medium for communication among far-flung areas of the world. I, for one, am glad there are people blogging from that area of the world. And let’s hope the military does not crack down on this kind of blogging by soldiers. Such a move would be quite unfortunate, in my opinion. Being able to communicate back home in this form is very important.