Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Minute Longer, A

This blog concerns a gentleman named Will. The webblog is about his hardships, adventures and time in Iraq. Throughout a few entries, you can tell this guy is definitely optimistic. You get an idea of how he learned from his time there and grew from it. The latest entry of the blog is actually his last. He returned home from Iraq to Wisconsin where he could not get enough nachos and beer. By the short entries upon his return, he was more than ecstatic to be home and see his family. Throughout his time in Iraq it was apparent that he found ways to keep himself sane and remain his optimistic self, through inside jokes, and making light of the hardest times.
While it’s still really difficult for me to read these sort of personal diaries so to say, because they are that: personal. I could not imagine how someone can return from such a scary and barren land and not be plagued with thoughts and memories. But the fact that I read a detailed and personal account of someone who was real, but optimistic made me feel optimistic about the war. This gentleman made a simple quote "Give us what we want and we'll go away." – he makes it so simple…and I just wish the rest of the world would think and feel this way.

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