Resumo de My War (killing Time In Iraq)

'My War' is a gritty, hard hitting, yet at times a very touching account of modern warfare at it's very worst and even sometimes best seen through the eyes of the soldier on the ground.

Colby Buzzell Joined the United States Army at the age of 26 and served for two years as a gunner with an elite Stryker Company (one year of which was spent in Iraq). Up until that age he had spent his time drinking, partying, meeting women and moving from job to job. His wish to do something more than work in dead end jobs, his mother nagging him to do something with his life and a chance meeting with an old school friend of his led to him deciding to join the Army, and despite being able to have the pick of what he could join he chose the infantry.

While in Iraq, Colby became aware of how much the public didn't know about what the average soldier did in Iraq, the hardships they endured, the conditions they lived in and (probably most importantly) what they thought of being stuck half way around the world fighting in a war most people don't understand. Most of what the public knows comes from the press and a lot of that is censored by military press liasons officers. Buzzell started a blogg on the internet recording as much as he could of his own, his platoons and even local peoples feelings and experiences of this ongoing conflict. Almost overnight his blogg became a success, attracting a huge amount of subscribers and without him realising it turning him into a minor celebrity, with the public and his fellow soldiers.

'My War' is an intelligent, uncompromising, well written book and in my opinion this is one of the best military books around at the moment, it's written in a language (a lot of it foul!) that everyone can understand and is defiantly for the normal 'civvi' and not just the military enthusiast. I found it impossible to put down as it made a rare change to read a book of this type, the author hasn't wrote this book to make us believe that he's some sort of hero (although,it's hard not to think that about him and his colleagues), he just wants us to understand what it's really like and that he and everyone else in a war is just like you and me, have the same fears, wants and worries. There is plenty of humour in the book, mainly from his view of how the military works and he gives us a good insight into what it's really like to be in combat (none of this 'I can just stand there and shoot at the enemy in the knowledge that my superior training will save me' routine!!), Colby conveys the confusion, fear, feeling that your going to die and then the relief at the combat being over better than any other book I've read.

Whether your pro-war, anti-war or have no opinion on the subject this book is a must read for everyone.

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