MilBlogging Issue #2: PERSPECTIVES -- How to represent w/any degree of fairness?

All these differing military opinions, crossed w/ personal opinions, shaded by location and recent experience. How do you represent them without (completely unhelpful) chaos?

Not sure. (This has been my major hang-up. I used to be a fairly confident person. Since my time in Iraq--which did not go well--I've begun second-guessing myself on just about everything. STUPID little things as well as Real Live Decisions. "Am I *sure* this email to [Friend] isn't too jumbled/harsh/cold/whatever? Can't allow another misjudgment.. maybe just won't send it..."It's a strange new sense of mental paralysis. Cognitively, I know many people deal with this and have overcome it, so this isn't about bitching and a pity-party for myself. But for full disclosure, part of the purpose of this blog is to force myself to commit something, ANYTHING to writing. One of those little steps, like having to choose a which of 5 salad dressings I want today, I don't know chaos! AAAAAUGH..)

I'll be adding milbloggers from perspectives as diverse as possible to my blogroll, hopefully sooner than later. Many are views from those deployed in Iraq. Representing, of course, a key array of perspectives that don't get anywhere near sufficient coverage in the MSM.

Americans, liberal and conservative, need to see be able to see a small bit of the raw, visceral experience of being out on a mission, a bullet's flight away from heroism or death--trying to remain hard, duty-bound to the mission, while also keeping a sense of humanity/self/compassion, however inappropriate they feel any given second.

Americans also need to see how inglorious the whole experience is. LOTS of "bored to death" moments with generous helpings of "confused". With bits of pure terror, reflex and gut-wrenching loss. But no cavalry charges, no prizes for advancing to the game's next level, no cool Hans Zimmer soundtrack, and sure-as-hell no "Game Over -- Play Again?"

That's where the shit hits the fan, so to speak, and the most direct perspective to observe.

I haven't been in that world, directly anyway, since 2003.

My perspective, next post.