"Killing Time in Iraq"

Even when Buzzell's conditions are obviouosly serious, he still manages to not only write a journal but is able to find ways to ease the tension. Like when Buzzell chose to write about getting bit by ants (the pain, how he reacted, what others thought) instead of describing what he was about to do, before getting bit by ants. He could of easily made his journal entry serious if he explained why he had his night vision goggles while in gun posistion on the hill. There was another journal entry he wrote that explains what car bombs are like in Iraq and it starts out, well just shoking that car bombs could be that explosive, but at the end of his entry he ends it with a lyric from a rap song in the eighties. Am I the only one that finds it odd to be talking about car bombs and their destructive abilities( mushroom clouds seen from miles away, building windows shattered from blocks and blocks away!) and then abruptly end it with a lyric from the eighties? Also, the titles of his journal entries are very... interesting. I really do not know what to make of it, should i find it humurous? When i read it i kinda chuckled, but it seems so wrong to chuckle at a title that has the word Car Bomb and escpecially if know the journal entries are related to a pressing time. "Car Bomb" "Another Damn Car Bomb" "And Another Damn Car Bomb". It seems like he is trying to not make is journal entries so serious on purpose. One of the reasons for keeping a journal is to re read it some time in the future and his journal entries are easier to read( not as depressing compared to the Diary of Anne Frank). So maybe it is for this purpose that when he (if he) re reads his journal it wont as traumatic (sad) opposed to him writing about the gory details on say car bombs.


Even though Buzzell's entries are not what i expected when i read the title "Killing Time in Iraq", I liked his style of writing. Even when situations are pretty bad, not every journal entry has to be gloomy/ somber. He found ways to make is journal more relaxed and focused on the better part of his days (i dont want to say "the better part", but i have no other words). He did not have to include the time he met an Iraqi who was so nice to give him two large bags of ice, or the time he met an Iraqi contracter who wanted a "certain" magazine. I do acknowledge him for being able to find even a little bit of posotive, when circumstances have become so routine that he sadly knows what triggered a car bomb.