Jarhead: a Marine's chronicle of the Gulf War and other battles (2003)

Jarhead, the movie based on the book of the same name, by Anthony Swofford, opened last weekend. In one of the many first-hand accounts that came out of that war, Swofford tells about his experience as a marine in the first Gulf war. The present war in Iraq is also inspiring many personal accounts by soldiers and journalists. The difference this time around is the presence of the internet and specifically, of the blogs (weblogs) created by many American soldiers and Iraqis.

Baghdad Burning Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend is a book based on the blog by a young Iraqi living in Baghdad and writing about the war and politics of Iraq from her very personal perspective.

Journalists have also contributed to the outpouring of books about the Iraq War. Naked in Baghdad, the Iraq War (2003) as seen by NPR’s correspondent Anne Garrels covers the start of the war. Asne Seierstad (Bookseller of Kabul) wrote A Hundred and One Days, a Baghdad Journal (2003) which also covers the beginning of the war. Boots on the Ground, a Month with the 82^nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq by Karl Zinsmeister (2003) recounts the war from a battlefield perspective. All these titles can be found in the BHPL collection.
A search for ‘Iraq War’ in the BHPL catalog results in 54 titles; in Amazon it turns up 2,401 hits, and 201 titles can be found in Ingram, the library’s book supplier. So it’s safe to say that this war is being heavily written about. But the most up-to-date and realistic accounts are the blogs. There are now probably 200 military blogs. Take a look at some of the soldier’s blogs linked to this page in USA Today which lists sources of military blogs.
A good blog to start with is My War by Colby Buzzell