"Baghdad Diarist" has a blog, too

The New Republic's super-secret "Baghdad Diarist," U.S. Army Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp, appears to also be a blogger. In a public statement today, Beauchamp told TNR readers, "I was initially reluctant to take the time out of my already insane schedule fighting an actual war in order to play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join."

But his blog posts suggest that he was never a happy warrior, either. Here's a taste of Private Beauchamp's blogging:

Every morning I get up and say I'm Scott Beauchamp, in the army, living in Germany, and this is my life, and I'm going to be treated like shit today and do landscaping and janitorial work and practice killing people and there could be no other way to appreciate what I had or what I'm going to have once I get out other than enduring this now when all I really want to do is teach history and lay around and read and hustle around and repair the world (tikkun olam) and sift through knowledge and improve culture and learn how to sail and work in soup kitchens and start a family and really, I mean REALLY study the best the western civilization has to offer and facilitiate the mystery and power through everything I do, but I cant do it without getting through this army experience first, which will add a legitimacy to EVERYTHING i do afterwards, and totally bolster my opinions on defense, etc, and of course its making me a lot less lazy, just because im not use to being lazy any more, etc.

 

...rereading Dershowitz's book "Shouting Fire" on civil liberties.... I know that NOT participating in a war (and such a misguided one at that) should be considered better than wanting to be in one just to write a book...but you know, maybe id rather be a good man than a good artist...be both?

PFC Scott Beauchamp
A Co. 1 18 Infantry, 2nd BCT, 1st ID
Camp Buehring
APO, AE 09330

I am Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp, a member of Alpha Company, 1/18 Infantry, Second Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division."