Is Buzzell going back to blogging?

Colby Buzzell served with the US Infantry in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-4. He’s one of the more successful US milbloggers and in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle he has revealed that he has been called up for a second tour of duty. Back in 2004 Buzzell’s blog, ‘My War: Killing time in Iraq’, made national headlines in the United States. His vivid first-hand accounts of combat became essential reading for many Americans interested in an unmediated perspective of the war in Iraq and Nick Cohen described his writing as ’something of a triumph for blogs over traditional media’. At that time, US soldiers could blog much more freely from military regulations than they can today, but Buzzell eventually got into trouble with the military authorities after he suggested that US troops were low on ammunition and water during a firefight in Iraq. Buzzell was disciplined for breaching operational security. His blog was nevertheless published as a book in 2006, receiving critical acclaim from numerous high profile sources. Now he’s going back to Iraq. In the article for the San Francisco Chronicle he says he ‘felt sick’ when he received his letter from the Department of the Army and believes his second tour of duty wouldn’t be necessary if more Americans volunteered to fight. This article suggests that Buzzell is willing to keep writing about his experiences. But it will be interesting to see if he blogs during this tour and, if he does, how much things have changed since his first deployment, both on the ground and in the blogosphere.