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  <title><![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]></description>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[Based on his blog (of the same title and that caused great controversy a few years back when the Army got all pissed off about it) this book is a first hand account of life as a foot solider in Iraq. Buzzell captures the sentiments of someone in transition--he joined the army not out of patriotism b...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6160139">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[Colby Buzzell is a California slacker turned soldier turned professional writier. His hold on literary technique is astounding. He is a natural writer. <br/><br/>This book is the story of a slacker's search for change and excitement, his experience as a soldier in Iraq, and his thoughts on the ope...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26164354">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <body><![CDATA[<br/>Colby Buzzell, Fuck The War: CBFTW, 17 Jun 2007 <br/>                <br/><br/>My War by Colby Buzzell is nothing less than the soul of an extremely interesting human being at war on our behalf in Iraq.&quot; <br/>-Kurt Vonnegut <br/><br/>Colby Buzzell, aged 26, in and out of meaningless...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41854432">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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    <body><![CDATA[Cool unbiased look at the war in Iraq by a soldier who kind of brought the &quot;blogging while at war&quot; deal to the forefront.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29967956]]></url>
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      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Kyla!]]></name>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
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    <body><![CDATA[A shaky three stars.<br/><br/>This is good for what it is: a primary source, the self-consciously expanded version of an infantryman's blog.  Honestly, it made my stomach turn for how good a snapshot this was of my generation.  The author is a kid out of high school for years, working crap job aft...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34969252">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Thu Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Sep 25 10:02:32 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Sep 25 10:56:19 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[what struck me most about this book was the realness of it. real and raw in the ways that he described himself, his fellow soldiers, his emotions...he didn't try to be a hero, he didn't try to glorify himself - that needs to be shown. a lot of these guys don't feel that they've done anything heroic ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/33817100">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/33817100]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>27460008</id>
    <user>
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    <name><![CDATA[Erik]]></name>
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  <id type="integer">58625</id>
  <isbn>0425211363</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780425211366</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">47</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jul 16 15:26:17 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Jul 17 18:51:41 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book kicked ass.  It's a really quick read.  The &quot;Men in Black&quot; section had me glued and in complete suspense.  True stories always strike closer to home for me.  The book really affected me, because I am a contemporary of this soldier.  All the protests I went to in my early 20's can...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27460008">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27460008]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>10826018</id>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Dec 21 11:21:49 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Dec 21 11:41:49 -0800 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is an autobiographical collection of blog entries, anecdotes and musings about life in the US army in Iraq.  The writing is not amazing, but the guy's got a really solid voice and his story-telling is very honest and funny.  <br/><br/>Colby, on the subject of a fellow soldier insisting that...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10826018">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10826018]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>74574059</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Juli]]></name>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">47</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58625.My_War_Killing_Time_in_Iraq</link>
  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Oct 14 19:24:56 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Oct 14 19:31:24 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This is kind of an odd mix of Buzzell's blog posts, journal entries, letters, and stuff that I think was written later to fill in the gaps.  Buzzell is sharp and honest, which makes his description of his time fighting in Iraq riveting and digestible, and his humor is spot-on, which made this book i...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74574059">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74574059]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jan 10 11:34:37 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Jan 10 11:38:23 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book was awesome.  Colby Buzzell writes about his experience as a grunt holding a michine gun on the back of a striker in Iraq.  He's a hillarious writer and gives you a real perspective of what it's like to be soldier on the ground. He does talk about a bit of the raw side of soldiers life's, ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42581902">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42581902]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>70667686</id>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <date_added>Wed Sep 09 18:52:47 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Sep 09 18:56:25 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Fantastic. I wasn't amazed so much at his accounts of military life and the war in Iraq, but his voice in relating them. If it weren't for the historical context, I'd easily have believed it was Charles Bukowski. A must-read for anyone with opinions on the Iraq War, or anyone who knows or works with...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70667686">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70667686]]></url>
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    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Mon May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun May 17 15:16:04 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon May 18 17:49:43 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[If you find it too depressing or political to read about the war, this is the book for you. Buzzell is both a dedicated soldier and an irreverant punk. His straight-talk about what it's like to serve over there really lays out America's love/hate relationship with war. Of course I'm a sucker for the...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56403038">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56403038]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56403038]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>52526510</id>
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  <isbn>0425211363</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780425211366</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">47</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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  <date_added>Mon Apr 13 12:46:51 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Apr 13 12:52:53 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[In the tradition of &quot;All Quiet on the Western Front&quot; and the &quot;The Naked and the Dead&quot;, Buzzell recounts in blunt, darkly comedic way the fears, frustrations and anxiety of the U.S. invasion/occupation of Iraq and military life in combat from the grunt's perspective...]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/52526510]]></url>
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      <review>
  <id>39548179</id>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Tue Dec 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Dec 07 17:29:29 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Dec 16 11:24:09 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Very Interesting and entertaining. Gave me an up close and personal account of what its like to be in the Marines in Iraq. However, I didnt really like his attitude or the fact that all he wanted to do was fight without taking into consideration the feelings of others that have died in combat.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39548179]]></url>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Sun Dec 21 21:54:36 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Dec 21 21:55:48 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[I've read this guy's story on the internet when he was still in Iraq. I started the book when I was on the cruise... Much to the horror of my better half! ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40649417]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/40649417]]></link>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Nov 30 12:50:47 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Nov 30 12:51:54 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[An excellent, engaging portrait of a grunt's time in Iraq.  ]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38955153]]></url>
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      <review>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Oct 18 20:11:17 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Oct 22 11:23:08 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This was an excellent read. Once I got past my own issues with the over-explanation of military terms and music references, the storyline was very upbeat and intriguing. The fact that there are other people in the armed forces that feel the same way I do about certain things is quite comforting. As ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35662660">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35662660]]></url>
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    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
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    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Wed Apr 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Feb 03 00:18:47 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Apr 09 23:17:12 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[ had started it and noticed that at first the chapters were short and very easy to read. The author's enthusiasm and awe at the newness of things was contagious.  As the book went on, much like the war itself, the chapters go longer and the writing was more complicated.  At least one other reader ta...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14426618">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14426618]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14426618]]></link>
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      <review>
  <id>42618715</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Allegra]]></name>
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  <isbn>0425211363</isbn>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">47</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58625.My_War_Killing_Time_in_Iraq</link>
  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
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    <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Sat Jan 10 17:43:36 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Jan 10 17:44:54 -0800 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[A contemporary Ambrose Bierce.  'nuff said!]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42618715]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42618715]]></link>
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      <review>
  <id>54448367</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Teo]]></name>
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  <id type="integer">58625</id>
  <isbn>0425211363</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780425211366</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">47</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[My War: Killing Time in Iraq]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170516738m/58625.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58625.My_War_Killing_Time_in_Iraq</link>
  <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>220</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<em>My War</em> is a book that will challenge many of the most common assumptions about the Iraq War and the people fighting in it. Colby Buzzell, the book's author and a U.S. Army machine-gunner who did a year-long tour in Iraq, is not the stereotypical small-town soldier from a Red State. He grew up in San Francisco eating pot brownies at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, skateboarding, and listening to punk and heavy metal. He supported Ralph Nader for president, reads George Orwell, and his dad worked in Silicon Valley. But he was sick of his &quot;life in oblivion,&quot; bouncing around from one dead-end job to another. As Buzzell writes in his typically gritty prose, &quot;I didn't want to get all old and have my bratty grandkids ask me, 'Grandpa, where were you during the Iraq war?' and me going, 'Oh, I was busy doing temp work and data entry for 12 bucks an hour.'&quot; <p> In search of adventure, Buzzell joined the army and got sent to Iraq. First stationed in the ultra-dangerous Sunni Triangle, he quickly mastered how to use the M240 Bravo machine gun: &quot;Just get behind that muthafucka and just fire it.&quot; His fellow soldiers, mostly hip-hop fans or headbanging metal-heads like him, killed time watching porn on mini-portable DVD players or listening to Metallica on their iPods while on patrol. Long boring spells were interrupted by wild fits of confusing action. On one of Buzzell's first missions, two platoons fired thousands of rounds at near point-blank range at an unarmed Iraqi civilian. Amazingly, he survived. Out of boredom, Buzzell started a blog, one of the first by an ordinary &quot;Joe&quot; grunt in Iraq. It became a media sensation and got Buzzell in trouble with the REMFs (&quot;Rear Echelon Mutha Fuckers&quot;) because of his less-than-glamorous portrayal of the war and his superiors, whom he accuses of constantly lying to the public and the soldiers under their command. <em>My War</em> may be disappointing to readers looking for deeper introspections on the moral questions behind the war, but it is a pretty convincing case against the claim that everything in Iraq is going fine. <em>--Alex Roslin</em></p>]]>
  </description>
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    <rating>5</rating>
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  <date_added>Wed Apr 29 23:03:13 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Apr 29 23:04:03 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[By far the best book about war I have ever read.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/54448367]]></url>
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