Cigars in the Sand

Cigars in the Sand, one of the Iraqi War Blogs, is written by Ryan, a border security advisor in Iraq. Before going to Iraq, he was the Deputy Counsel for the Homeland Security Council in the White House. This blog spans December 2004 to April 2005. In this blog, Ryan mainly posts bits of news that various news websites wrote (Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, etc.), or quotes that various people have said (Hillary Clinton, Winston Churchill, etc.) and gives the reader his inside take on them, whether he agrees, disagrees, or has something to add that you won't see printed. There are also some posts, especially at the beginning, where he uses the blog much as a diary to tell the reader about his day to day life in Iraq and post some pictures. The tone is very informal and friendly, and Ryan seems like a honest, trustworthy, and very informed author. The blog is very interesting to read because if you read something in the news, you have no idea if the article is biased in any way, but here, Ryan has inside information from Iraq, and he basically tells it like it is. He completely rips apart some articles and quotes, and he uses factual information to back it up because he is a lawyer by training, so he knows how to convincingly argue his point.

Here is the link to the blog: http://cigarsinthesand.blogspot.com/