General Disagreement On Military Blogs
I want … I DEMAND … I NEEDs my War Porn!!! …
There’s a bit of disagreement among senior U.S. Army commanders over how to deal with the Internet. In the last ten years, the web has gone from a curiosity, to a potential security leak, to a potential weapon against terrorism. The current thinking is that the army would be helped, and security not much threatened at all, if current restrictions on troops creating blogs, battlefield video and lots of net-based noise, be lifted. It’s pointed out that troops who want to sound off on the web, manage to do so despite the restrictions. Commanders have better things to do than hunt down unauthorized blogging in the ranks. The troops make battlefield videos and post them, anonymously if need be. Some generals are now suggesting that this behavior be encouraged, that the army get in front of this movement, rather than looking bad because the troops are easily defying orders to stay away from discussing or displaying their army activities on the web.
The basic problem is that all military organizations are about control and discipline. These characteristics are necessary to survive and win in combat. But at the same time, the most successful units encourage a lot of initiative from the troops. That’s what blogging and much web activity is, and the pro-web generals want the rest of the high command to get with it and drop the restrictions on troops blogging and posting videos and other material. In a war where the Internet has become one of the battlegrounds, some American generals are, in effect, being accused of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
(nods mike3481)
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I agree for the most part. My problem comes when things go from “We did xxxxxx” to “We are going to do xxxxx”. OPSEC has to be maintained, and sometimes people forget that the internet (and video feeds *cough* *Geraldo* *cough*) can be real-time instruments. If there was a way for our troops over there to blog, post pics and video while ensuring it was all past ops I think it would be great. But unless there were some sort of safeguards to prevent intel from being spilled commanders will need to be vigilant against mistakes, and unfortunately that means filtering what is released. Maybe a new Company duty position needs to be made? Have someone assigned duty as blog reviewer?
I don’t know, I’d just hate to see someone get in trouble or worse because someone spilled intel that they shouldn’t have.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:55 pmExactly. “Loose lips sink ships” is still just as true today as it was in WW2.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:52 pmGuys … the troops have been blogging through the entire war.
I’ve yet to hear one instance where it has breached anything important, or leaked anything, or caused any trouble for the war or themselves …
However, the NYTimes and the MSM in general, on the other hand …
May 21st, 2008 at 6:18 pm