Blogging all the way from Iraq

I help update our local news site, athensi.com. I scour the local news sites for arts and music stories and then link them through the site by providing teasers. Anyway, the post is not about my inner internet geek, it is about something on athensi.com.

Kevin Kuwik is presently serving in Iraq, but before he left, he was the assistant basketball coach here at Ohio University. He sends periodic emails to the athletic department, and they post them on their site, ohiobobcats.com. Athensi.com has taken interest in his letters and photographs, and has mirrored them on their site. Check out his latest installment from February 6.

He talks mostly about inocuous topics: the weather, how the Bobcats are doing, watching the superbowl through the Armed Forces Network. While all of this is interesting, I am skeptical that he is witholding a lot of side thoughts about his REAL experience in Iraq. The death, the fact that he is away from his family and home... basically his take on the current situation. I don't know if Captain Kuwik is a republican or a democrat, but it would be interesting to hear some thoughts other than how hot it is.

A hypothetical situation: say he was discontent with his situation, and he wanted to vent about the current administration and the treatment of soldiers in Iraq -- where would he do it? I'm sure he would be a little hesitant to write a blog from military computers -- there must be some sort of spy program to find out what the soldiers are writing. In fact, I read an article the other day about the suppression of a blog by an MP who was not happy about his situation in Iraq. (I cannot seem to find the link right now, but I'll keep searching.)

I guess my point is that a blog should include all thoughts: both happy and sad, good and bad. If I wanted to read a one-sided blog, I'll go check out those on foxnews.com...