Found on The Morning News:

http://warisreal.blogspot.com/

The title of the blog is “War is Real”, and the writer is a soldier getting ready to go back to Iraq. Here is an expert,

“she says to me, you could always go back out there, man up and be a true soldier. bitch, i was there once and i need some FUCKING HELP before i can go back and see those things again. are you not comprehending this? do i need to spell it out for you? i fucking hate the fact that i’m required to kill evil people who are only evil because our president wills them to be.

yeah, i’m going back to iraq. if i get shot at or placed in danger, i’m going to kill everything that moves on the other site. i won’t enjoy doing it, but it’s my job, and my battle buddies are more important to me than life itself, and THEY are the reason i’m going. screw iraq, screw bush, screw the army — just remember that it’s me and my battle buddies out there, and we are the ones fighting a sham war just so we can come home and get a nice welcome reception for being heroes, and then six months later nothing changes and we’re back to being grunts.”

Blogs don’t get any more powerful than this, and it’s sad to think that it won’t do us any good. The voice of people is being broadcasted - and some of us are listening. Great. Now what? The invention of press has not improved us morally, nor has the internet. Just like technology has offered more ways of communication but we are not communicating any better. I don’t know how to fix it, I wish I know. Reading “War is Real” is just a cruel reminder of how powerless we are. War is real and will go on, because that’s human nature.

Another thought: I’m fairly optimistic that our world will not end up like the one described in 1984, one where information is controlled by the government, because technology is giving the people power. Instead, our reality is more like the one imagined by Joseph Heller in Catch-22. A big farce, in which a war can go on parallel with our profit-driven, celebrity-obsessed society. And we read about a soldier’s tormented soul like we’re watching a reality-TV show. This is a world where we know what’s going on, but still go on.

I feel upset, sad, frustrated, ashamed right now. But in five minutes I’ll be ok. I’ll go on with my daily life in the big city, resume my daily insignificant routine, I’ll probably watch the Pistons vs Heat game tonight, and maybe the Contender match tomorrow night on NBC.