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War blog rings true for many

Nov-10-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times

Back in February, one month into his stay in Iraq, writer Michael Yon almost ended his attempt to chronicle the war in an online blog. He lacked the backing of a newspaper, magazine or book publisher, and grew weary of the risks of life in a combat zone as he embedded with U.S. troops.

"I was ready to get out. I wasn't getting paid, and it was damn dangerous," Yon said. "Every day I was thinking 'Is this the day I might get killed or get my legs blown off?' "

Yon hung on, emerging as one of the best-read bloggers of the war (his site is michaelyon.blogspot.com), as he chronicled a tumultuous spring and summer in Mosul with the "Deuce Four," a battalion of the 24th Infantry Regiment, part of the Fort Lewis-based 1st Brigade (Stryker), 25th Infantry Division.

Yon's words and photos offer a sometimes gut-wrenching view of the war and its toll on U.S. soldiers, insurgents and civilians.

The blog emerged as a powerful example of the platform that the Internet offers a lone writer, and Yon as a high-profile voice who believes the U.S. military in Mosul has made substantial progress in quelling in the insurgency.

Yon is part of a broader network of war bloggers that include U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians such as Riverbend, a young Iraqi woman. She posts an often bleak view of an occupation gone sour in her blog, Baghdad Burning, riverbendblog.blogspot.com.

Collectively, these blogs offer alternate portals through which readers around the world can gain insights into Iraq. Yon says his best-read dispatches have attracted more than 80,000 viewers. And last summer, after he started posting a solicitation for money to help pay for the dispatches, thousands of people responded; the smallest donation was $2; the largest, $2,000.

Last week, Yon was taking a brief break from Iraq, returning to the United States for the first time this year for a welcome-home ball in Tacoma for the Deuce Four. The formal event on Saturday drew hundreds of battalion members as well as actor Bruce Willis, who touts Yon's blog as the "real deal" in a post on his own Web site.

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