Last Friday the Post published an article discussing American service members deployed to Iraq who maintain a blog, on the heels of a Wired piece discussing the same. The articles gave DCist pause as we noted the changes that this sometimes hated, sometimes revered practice of blogging have brought to our news gathering habits. A few weeks ago, DCist posted about using RSS feeds and Bloglines to keep track of your daily blog reading, but really, why read blogs when you can get all of your news from the Post and CNN, run by experienced journalists from noted credible news sources?

The recent articles specifically discuss pros and cons of military blogging, and the fact that currently the Pentagon only requires blogs be registered with the member’s unit and standard classified information protocol be followed. Many of these blogs can be found through The Mudville Gazette. (Scroll down the right side for the lengthy blog roll.) In addition to service members, one can follow links to blogs written by spouses, parents, and children of the men and women deployed. Citizens turned journalists and storytellers, recounting both the pivotal events and the mundane routine of life today.

The Wired article quotes blogger Danjel Bout in its close, eloquently expressing DCist’s sentiments on the value of blogs.

“Americans are raised on a steady diet of action films and sound bites that slip from one supercharged scene to another,” he says, “leaving out all the confusing decisions and subtle details where most people actually spend their lives. While that makes for a great story, it doesn’t reveal anything of lasting value. For people to really understand our day-to-day experience here, they need more than the highlights reel. They need to see the world through our eyes for a few minutes.”

The war in Iraq is highlights the value blogs add to our “information in” process.