A Schofield Barracks spokesman confirmed that the Army in Baghdad ordered Capt. Matthew S. Gallagher -- who is assigned to 25th Division's 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team -- to stop writing a blog called "Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal," which chronicled the exploits of his time in Iraq and that of his platoon, which was called Gravediggers. The platoon was sent to Iraq in December. The last posting was on June 27. Since then it has been maintained by his fiancee.
A Washington Post July 26 story that said a May 28 posting, which depicted an officer in his unit unflatteringly, caused Gallagher's downfall. The story said that Gallagher also violated Army blogging rules by not having a supervisor review its contents before publishing. The contents of his old blog are kept on a Web site created by his friends: "kaboomwarjournalarchive.blogspot.com" after Gallagher was ordered by the Army to delete his blog.
Gallagher's unit Bravo Troop was sent to Sabaa Al-Bour, a village northwest of Baghdad, which Gallagher calls in his blog Anu-al-Verona, the sister village of Romeo and Juliet's Verona where Sunnis and Shiites played the roles of Capulets and Montagues, the story reported. Extremist militants were called "Ali Babas" in his blog.
In the May 28 posting Gallagher described his conversation with his supervisor, whom he had told that he wasn't interested in a promotion that would take him away from his platoon. He juxtaposed it with dialogue that was taking place in his mind, the newspaper reported. The supervisor took it "like a spurned teen-age blonde whose dreamboat crush tells her point-blank that he prefers brunettes," Gallagher wrote.
First Lieutenant Matt Gallagher has fought battles in Iraq. As I am writing these words, it is likely he is listening intently to the radio crosstalk of his Gravediggers Platoon out on patrol and he's just itching to get out there with them as they prepare to raid a safe house or a weapons cache. On sun-baked streets and in deadly back alleys, he and the Gravediggers fight a cutthroat guerrilla enemy fueled by animosity and greed and justified by extremist ideology. Men like he and the Gravediggers fight and die every day in this godforsaken place. For what?
Many say this war is about oil, or for freedom, or for stock dividends from no-bid contracts, or for Papa Bush, or for whatever. Who knows? I say all of those things are extras that come along with the intended purpose of establishing a strategic U.S. footprint in the region. But what do I know? I know the following: you're not going to get a real answer while sipping your coffee on the couch and watching Fox and Friends or CNN. You won't get it riding to work, listening to Rush Limbaugh or any left-wing radio broadcast. So where are you going to get a straight story on the war without political bias or an agenda? You'll get if from the same place history has always gotten a real account of war- from the soldiers who fight it, live it, bleed and die in it.
Captain Gallagher- I know it's cliche, but I salute you. I'm a writer and a soldier myself, and it pisses me off to hear about your battle with censorship…especially since I'm in Iraq, too, and will undoubtedly face similar issues. I realize you can't write your blog anymore, but maybe reading mine will cheer you up. Being a soldier, to most, is a means of self-validation, but being a writer is liberation! In some cases this can be a compromising dichotomy.
Good luck to you.
God rest the souls of those who have gone before us.
-Cyrus
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