![]() The Army pulled the plug on the blog in June 2008 after Mr. Matt Gallagher served as an Army platoon leader in Baghdad during a 15-month deployment in 2007-08, and in that time, writing under the name "LT G," he entertained online readers with an irreverent blog called "Kaboom." His posts-originally intended for family and friends before a wider audience took notice-captured the comic insanities that are an inevitable aspect of life within the military leviathan. It is important to be reminded that, in certain wars, we demand that our grunts be sympathetic toward the people and implacable toward the enemy sheltered by the people. When soldiers write about counterinsurgency warfare, they automatically address the tension between these two fundamental parts of their mission-a tension that is often missing from accounts by high-profile journalists who have never served. In a counterinsurgency, though, they have to kill the enemy and, simultaneously, protect civilians, among whom the enemy lurks. American soldiers and Marines are killing machines the more efficiently they accomplish war's central task, the better for them and for our country. ![]() You don't precipitately hurl your soldiers into a fight, but you don't flinch from one either. ![]() For an officer, war is all about taking care of your own by balancing risk and reward. ![]()
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