Inspired by the 1000 Journals Project, and journalers like Dan Eldon, Tracy Moore and Sabrina Harrison, The Baghdad Diaries is a reaction to many of the events that have occurred during the past 88 months as the war in Iraq and "War on Terror" have become a daily part of our lives.

Administered by a Concerned Citizen, the goal of this collaborative journal project is to return the dialog about these events to a public forum where it belongs. During the past 88 months, our conversation about these events has been structured primarily by two groups, the government and the media, and each has offered us little more then a series of polarized truths. Each hand-bound diary represents a life; each represents a member of the military who has died in Iraq, and each diary carries a dedication to that individual. Let's use the diaries as a tool to engage in a conversation at the personal level where it is unstructured by the government and unfiltered by the media.

Why a series of diaries? A diary conveys a certain sense of intimacy where we can offer an honest introspective dialogs and confess our hopes and doubts. As each diary passes from person to person, perhaps we'll find we have common hopes and doubts regardless of where we stand. How will this personal conversation affect each of us? Who knows? It may comfort some of us; it may alienate some of us and it may disillusion some of us. It may help some of us acknowledge the way our world has changed and come to terms with those changes. After all, this is a conversation about the world and our place in it. What do you have to say?