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On Wednesday 16 December 2009, many milblogs — including This Ain’t Hell, From My Position, Blackfive, Miss Ladybug, Boston Maggie, Grim’s Hall, and those participating in the Wednesday Hero program — are going silent for the day. Some are choosing to go silent for a longer period of time.

Join Honest Conservative on NiteCap with Freedom Radio, tonight, April 19, 2009, at 8 PM Eastern. Pat will speak with Greyhawk and Mrs G of the Mudville Gazette and Andi of Spouse Buzz about history of MilBlogs and the military bloggers conference next week in D.C. "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."Here is the link to the show and the call-in number is (646) 478-5613.

Video at link

You may never have seen either of those pictures before. If so, you are not alone. "American combat soldiers don't want pity." Yon says, "They're ready to fight to the end; they just don't want it to be for naught. They have been fighting for two nations, one of which didn't seem to notice. The Iraqis noticed." "We can win this war," Yon declares. "And if we do it will be a victory of the same magnitude as the fall of the Soviet Union. It will not be a victory for the Republican Party. It will not be a victory...

Stake through Their Hearts Killing al Qaeda March 2008Western Nineveh Province, Iraq The sun was setting over Nineveh as four terrorists driving tons of explosives closed on their targets. On August 14, 2007, the Yezidi villages of Qahtaniya and Jazeera were under attack, but only the terrorists knew it as they drove their trucks straight into the hearts of the communities. The shockwave from detonation far outpaced the speed of sound. Buildings and humans were ripped apart and hurled asunder. Superheated poisonous gases from the explosions gathered the smoke and dust and lofted heavenward, while the second detonation quickly...

ANBAR PROVINCE, IRAQ – The Iraqi town of Al Farris looks like a model Soviet city up close and a rounded square from the sky. Saddam Hussein built it to house workers in the now-defunct weapons factory to the east, and they live in neighborhoods called City 1, City 2, City 3, City 4, and City 5. “Socialist living at its finest,” Sergeant Edward Guerrero said as we rolled through the gates in a Humvee. The place made me think of Libya, where I have been, and North Korea, where I have not.

i've been looking through here http://www4.army.mil/armyimages/ but those are all from training exercises or photo ops. i want to see pictures that are more real, taken by troops in or near combat.

Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was. He had been in uniform but not in combat, and he wanted to keep it that way. He went to Iraq thinking he would stay for a month, and maybe find a way to write about the war after he got home. Michael Yon, a former Special Forces fighter, writes dispatches and posts photographs from the front lines in Iraq. Instead, he has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, writing prolifically and graphically, and racking up more time embedded with combat units than...

Soldier's final journal. Soldier's story continues after death By MIKE NICHOLS mnichols@journalsentinel.com Posted: Jan. 6, 2008 Mike Nichols E-MAIL Andy Olmsted was too many things to neatly enumerate. He was a husband and a brother and a blogger. He was a son to two of my very good friends. "I don't know if there is an afterlife; I tend to doubt it, to be perfectly honest. But if there is any way possible, Amanda, then I will live up to Delenn's words, somehow, some way. I love you." Services for Andy Olmsted will probably be at Fort Carson in Colorado...

Andy Olmsted by hilzoy Andrew Olmsted, who also posted here as G'Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July. Andy was a wonderful person: decent, honorable, generous, principled, courageous, sweet, and very funny. The world has a horrible hole in it that nothing can fill. I'm glad Andy -- generous as always -- wrote something for me to publish now, since I have no words at all. Beyond: Andy, I will miss you. My thoughts are with his wife, his...

Fort Carson-based Army Major Andrew Olmsted who wrote a blog from the war for the Rocky Mountain News was killed Thursday in Iraq. He went there to teach members of the Iraqi Army how to defend their country and provide security for citizens. Major Olmsted was a veteran blogger and was determined to make a difference in Iraq. He began writing for RockyMountainNews.com on May 21. He left behind a final blog post on his website AndrewOlmsted.com. No details were available on how the Major Olmsted died.

I suppose I should speak to the circumstances of my death. It would be nice to believe that I died leading men in battle, preferably saving their lives at the cost of my own. More likely I was caught by a marksman or an IED. But if there is an afterlife, I'm telling anyone who asks that I went down surrounded by hundreds of insurgents defending a village composed solely of innocent women and children. It'll be our little secret, ok?

There's an amazing program about soldiers blogging from Iraq on the History Channel right now. I've never started a thread, so I'm sorry if I am breaking any protocol. This show is just too good not to let other people know about it.

Last month Pajamas Media published an in-depth report on the scandal surrounding the “Baghdad Diarist” articles by Scott Thomas Beauchamp in The New Republic. Now PJM’s Bob Owens interviews Major John Cross, who led the U.S. Army’s investigation into Private Beauchamp’s shocking claims. Even more shocking is what Cross reveals below: Among other findings, there is no credible evidence that TNR made any attempt at fact checking prior to publishing the articles. Furthermore, not one of the soldiers interviewed under oath in the investigation corroborated Beauchamp’s story. Click link for more: http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/09/new_republic.php

Part One: The Paradox of Counterinsurgency The principles and imperatives discussed above reveal that COIN presents a complex and often unfamiliar set of missions and considerations for a military commander. In many ways, the conduct of counterinsurgency is counterintuitive to the traditional American view of war—although it has actually formed a substantial part of America’s actual experience.Counterinsurgency December 2006 FM 3-24 MCWP 3-33.5 To know a man, follow his tracks.Anbar Province June, 2007 Iraq and this part of the world are complicated in the way, and by the way, that dysfunction always is “complicated.” Worse, in this labyrinth of history,...

The FReeper Canteen Looks at MILBLOGGINGI have recently become interested in reading milbloggers on the internet.  I was challenged by Cannoneer No. 4 (thank you!) to read these and in addition, to comment on them.  From Cannoneer No. 4's blog... What Can YOU Do? Filed under: milblogger, IO — cannoneerno4 @ 12:20 pm   People who want to “support the troops” ask that question a lot.  What do you WANT to do? Why are you waiting to be told what to do? Why don’t you find something useful to do, and just do it?What IS useful? Pretty much anything that...

Milblogger project: Send an e-mail of support By Michelle Malkin  •  June 20, 2007 09:35 PM Grim at Blackfive interviewed Col. Simcock of Regimental Combat Team 6. The colonel asked Americans to send letters of support to RCT-6: GRIM: Is there anything that you and your Marines need that we could send you?COL. SIMCOCK: (Chuckles.) I’ll tell you what, the one thing that all Marines want to know about — and that includes me and everyone within Regimental Combat Team 6 — we want to know that the American public are behind us. We believe that the actions that we’re taking...

Freelancer Michael Yon Does the Job the MSM Won't Do Posted by Terry Trippany on June 20, 2007 - 10:46. I have been a huge fan of Michael Yon for years. He risks life and limb as an embedded reporter to report the news in Iraq from the soldiers' point of view and he is honest in his assessment. That honesty has often been met with scorn and resistance by some decision makers in the military who in my assessment have been their own worst enemy when it comes to getting the word out about progress as well as the...

Colby Buzzell, whose online diary from the Sunni triangle frontline evolved into the book My War, awarded Blooker prize. An American soldier's violent and darkly comic account of fighting in Iraq has won the "Blooker prize" for best book that began as a blog on the Internet. Colby Buzzell, whose Internet diary became the book My War, started posting online from a Sunni triangle frontline Internet tent as a way to "kill time." The book won the second annual $10,000 prize sponsored by publishing Web site Lulu.com. His blog allowed him to explain the war to readers back home with...

Red State is live blogging the conference President Bush gave a taped pep talk to them, the video is posted There is also a live feed at Mudville Gazette