Colby Buzzell enlisted in the
US Army at the age of 26. He served in Iraq. Colby Buzzell is the author of My
War: Killing Time in Iraq.
Publisher’s Weekly said of My War: Killing Time in Iraq, “With this relentlessly
cynical volume, Buzzell converts his widely read 2004 blog into an episodic but captivating memoir about the year he spent
serving as an army "trigger puller" in Iraq. Posted to Mosul in late 2003, Buzzell's platoon was ordered "to
locate, capture and kill all non compliant forces." Accordingly, his entries describe experiences pursuing elusive guerrillas
(aka "men in black"); enduring sniping, rocket and mortar attacks; and witnessing the occasional car bomb. Face-to-face
fighting almost never occurs. No matter: though the combat scenes are exciting, this book is actually more engrossing as a
portrait of the day-to-day life of a young American soldier who has "read, and re-read, countless times, every single
one of [Bukowski's] books." Like Bukowski, Buzzell appears to be a sentimental misanthrope; he pours scorn on everyone
from cooks to generals to President Bush. He also despises the media, the antiwar movement and everyone who thinks they understand
what's happening in Iraq. That his superiors kept their hands off his blog for several months, however, shows they understood
that;despite its foul language, griping, insults directed at higher officers and occasional exposure of dirty linen; Buzzell's
work never really wavers in its portrayal of American forces as the good guys in a dirty war.”