Front Line Blogging

The blogosphere continues to get more interesting as I explore corners that I don't generally cover. MilBlogs is a blog that basically pulls in several military bloggers to this central location. They are first-person accounts of life on the front lines and life on the home front told by those who live it. From the site: Most simply want to tell the story of their war. But by design or happenstance, in doing so they've written their part of the history of these times, documenting a war that many feel the traditional media has failed to capture, denying others the opportunity to speak falsely "for the troops" without concern of being exposed.

I have read through several of the posts and, I gotta tell you, its pretty addictive. Once you start reading, you get the feeling that you're part of this secret world with its own practices and language. See for yourself:

I question both the aptness of using contractors for certain mission-critical functions - and the codicils in the contracts under which they function - to include ones where truly mission-critical infrastructure personnel are designated as NEO evacuees in the event of conflict, their jobs putatively taken over by their uniformed supervisors. Supervisors who, when I was watching them perform *their* duties, didn't seem to have much slack time to take on another, full-time, mission-critical task set.

To be honest, it's a bit sad that it feels like that because that means I am really out of touch with who and what the military is. Mind you, I have two brothers in the Navy.

I suspect most other people feel even more out of touch than me. We just don't want to admit it to ourselves. There needs to be a healthy understanding and a TRUE respect for the military. I know that's the talk from both sides of the isle...but I don't think it's real because most people don't understand what the members of the military really believe and do so how can they truly respect them?

-Marc