My War

'Once we passed the checkpoint at the border it hit me. I was like Holy Shit this is it I'm entering a combat zone. Cool!' At twenty-six Colby Buzzell unemployed and living at home decided to join the US Army. 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. Trapped amid 'guerrilla warfare urban-style' in Mosul Iraq Buzzell was struck by the bizarre and often frightening world surrounding him. He began writing a blog describing the war - not as being reported by CNN or official briefings - but as experienced by the soldier on the ground. His story is a brutally honest and hard-hitting account of the absurdities of modern war. These are the real stories of the war: a firefight where the resistance came from 'men in black'; a night spent chain-smoking in the guard tower counting the tracer bullets being fired over the city; and the hesitation of a young soldier who had been passed around from platoon to platoon because he was too afraid to fight. My War is a powerful story of a young man and a war unlike any you have read before.