Over the past few years, Weblogs have become quite popular, with thousands of individuals, organizations, and other groups forming their own sites devoted to this form of online expression. For those unfamiliar with this growing phenomenon, a Weblog is quite literally a "log" of the Web, where the author links to other Web pages he or she finds interesting, complete with running narration and brief descriptions. (Note to readers: The Scout Report has its own Weblog located at http://scout.wisc.edu/weblog/ ) With the war in Iraq, many United States military personnel have created their own Weblogs, often recounting personal stories, daily events, and tributes to fallen colleagues. The United States military has adopted an open policy towards this practice, though some commentators have expressed concern that certain sensitive material might be disseminated through these reports. Despite these concerns, "on-the-spot" broadcasts have been a hallmark of war-time reporting since the days of Ernie Pyle, and are likely to continue unabated.

The first link takes visitors to a recent news article from the Washington Post about the growing number of war-related Weblogs. The second link is to a news article from the online technology news service, ZD Net UK, about the wide variety of Weblogs that have emerged as of late. The third link leads to one of the most popular soldier produced Weblogs, created by "L.T. Smash," the nickname of a US Navy reservist who arrived in the Gulf region last December. The fourth link is to another soldier's Weblog, a US Army reservist who goes by the name "Will." The fifth link is to a Forbes.com feature that ranks a number of war Weblogs on presentation, quality, relevance, and reputation. The sixth link is to an editorial about war Weblogs by Tim Cavanaugh, writing for the Online Journalism Review, a Web-based journal produced at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. The last link leads visitors to a collection of columns written by the legendary Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and World War II correspondent.