He said, “Son, have you seen the world? Well what would you say, if I said that you could?”-Rise Against
I am a little behind in the world of technology but I am hoping that through this project I not only learn more about current events but that I also discover that I can figure this blog thing out. I am ashamed to say that I don’t know as much about the War in Iraq as I probably should. I don’t know enough about any war in our nation’s history for that matter. I selected the “Making War and Peace” theme in hopes that I would feel more educated when it comes to politics, the military, and warfare. This is my final class in the theme and I am disappointed that I can’t recal more of what I learned. I had amazing professors and learned life changing things in “Terrorism” and “History of Warfare” but I can only tell you snippets of what I encountered in those classes. I am quite certain that I would not be able to hold a decent conversation with anyone about warfare, past and present. I have thought about all of this frequently as we begin our experience in ENG 384. I am an English major- Literature is just my thing. I wouldn’t call myself a writer but I am most definitely a reader, especially if you aren’t requiring that I read a massive textbook. I think that this class is finally going to help me get it. Connecting warfare with literature is the final piece to my “War and Peace” puzzle and I am excited to begin this journey. I guess you can call this my introduction, now for the real assignment.
The main purpose of my blog is to focus on the connections between soldiers and civilians. I will concentrate on soldiers deployed in various contries, soldiers back home dealing with realities of what they experienced while deployed, civilians on the homefront and civilians on the warfront. There are truly no limitations to this topic, but it is my hope to continually connect soldiers with civilians.
My first feed in Google Reader is a military blog entitled Sour Swinger. http://www.sourswinger.name/blog/2009/09/05/home-at-last-camp-patriot/ This blog follows a soldier in his deployment in Iraq. I selected this blog because this man is still deployed and feels the effects of the War in Iraq every single day. I admire the work that he is doing with Kick for Nick. He is helping continue the dreams of a fallen soldier who had a passion for soccer and bringing that love to the children in Iraq. Portions of his blog focus on handing out soccer balls and socks to children in Iraq who live with the effects of war everyday. His blog has been extremely interesting to me because he includes many photos of his experiences while at war. I hope that this blog will be beneficial to my project because it is from the viewpoint of a soldier who is currently deployed. This is the feed that I put the most effort into finding because I wanted it to be current, well written, and relevant to our discussions and readings. I believe that I have found all of these things with this blog.
I subscribed to the New York Times World section, and more specifically the Middle East portion of the newspaper. I felt that this would be the most beneficial in my search for connections between current events and our class readings.
I added the search query “War in Iraq” through Google News because I would like to receive up-to-date information on current events in Iraq.
I also added a military podcast by Michael Yon about the war in Afghanistan. http://podcasts.military.com/2009/08/michael-yon-live-from-helmand-province.html He explains how the war is going and exactly what the United States hopes to accomplish through this battle. He also includes his opinions about what America needs to do in order to accomplish these goals. I selected this podcast because it will provide a different viewpoint of war in the world today that the War in Iraq can not give me.
