My War: Killing Time in Iraq - Colby Buzzell

A raw, edgy and intimate voice from the front line in Iraq - the most authentic account of the war yet. This is the debut of a fresh and remarkable voice, already being compared to the classics of youth and combat Herr's "Dispatches" and Heller's "Catch-22". More than just a war story, "My War" is the account of a generation caught between the hyper-reality of a technological age and an ever more complicated and dangerous world. Like many of his generation, Colby Buzzell was jumping from one dead-end job to another. He spent his time skateboarding and killing as many brain cells as humanly possible. Tired of the monotony, he found himself in front of an army recruitment officer. Within months he was in Iraq, a machine gunner in the controversial Stryker Brigade Combat Team, an army unit on the cutting-edge of combat technology, and the first of its kind. This is the startlingly honest story of a young man and a war. Trapped amid "guerilla warfare, urban-style" in Mosul, Iraq, Buzzell was struck by the bizarre, absurd and often frightening world surrounding him. He began writing an online web log describing the war - not as it was being reported by CNN or in briefings on Capitol Hill, but as he experienced it first-hand. The result is an extraordinary narrative, rich with unforgettable scenes: the fierce firefight in which the resistance came from "men in black"; chain-smoking in the guard tower, counting the tracer rounds fired over the city; the raid on an Iraqi home; and the hesitation of a young soldier who had been passed around from platoon to platoon because he was too afraid to fight. As the popularity of his "blog" grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn't control despite its best - and often hilarious - efforts to do so. See all Product Description