Milbloggers to be monitored

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.  Our brave men and women currently serving abroad and who have kept all of us here at home informed with the "real story" now are required to register their blogs with the Multi-National Corps in Iraq. 

Now, as a civilian, I was outraged when I read this.  My first argument goes along the lines of ....um..let me see...the First Amendment!?!  But I'm a civilian.  I know absolutely nothing about classified and non-classified information or what exactly soldiers can or cannot, should or should not talk about.  But what I do know is that we are certainly getting more of the truth from our fellow "milbloggers" than we get from the media...including the embedded media.

I wanted to see what some of the milbloggers were saying about this turn of events.    John over at Argghhh!!! says "its as balanced an approach as possible...most importantly recognized the importance of the deployed bloggers."  Black Five posts an article written by Joseph R. Chenelly of the Army Times that has several interviews from milbloggers who want to remain anonymous.  Black Five believes that "its always good to know where you stand with your commanders."

Now these guys are the ones who are effected by this, not me.  But I can't help but think that there are going to be problems.  First, you've got some commanders who are real ass's (Col. Hunt and my cousin excluded, of course).  And if a commander is not familiar with blogging, he/she may not want to be bothered with it and just order their soldiers not to blog.  Others may give their guys and gals free reign.  Besides the fact that these blogs are be reviewed by commanders quarterly?  Do the math.  That's a lot of reviewing.

So after reading some of the opinions of milbloggers, I can accept the rules stating what can and cannot be blogged about.  But I just hope this is not the first step in shutting down the milbloggers all together.  I hope this isn't a situation of someone high up in the media world knowing someone high up in the Multi-National Corps convincing them that blogging isn't good for the war effort.  I know that's a wee bit far-fetched.... but, hey, stranger things have happened.

Lisa

Comments

[Always Question]

The military are a resilient and resourceful bunch. I was reminded a number of times, and I have also read elsewhere, that I worked for a democracy and not in one. Having said that, people find ways of working through or getting around things.

[Billy]

When you are in the Military,you belong to them[i spent 4 years in the military].You dont have the same rights as the rest of the free world.Push the issue and they will let you know who is in charge.Enlisted solders have a lot less freedom that officers do.And take the blame for a lot of things the officers should take the heat for.[Abu Graib prison for example]

[Mitchell Land]

First, the commanders, I am sure, will not do the reviewing. They'll hand that off to an NCO who will, as always, get the job done.

Second, as long as nothing of an operational nature shows up on the blog (the rules also cover regular websites), there's no problem. And, generally, if something does show up, the soldier in question is simply asked to remove it.

I actually applaud MNF-I for taking the long view and adapting to the latest technology in a fairly even-handed manner.

It's a well-known, and accepted, fact that soldiers, sailors, and airmen have fewer "rights" than some guests of a state penal system. Generally speaking, that's good for us. If a unit was allowed to, say, vote on whether or not it got to drive fuel trucks somewhere...

We've come a long way from officers, as in WWII, having to censor all the mail (which most did simply by rubber stamping it anyway I am sure). They don't do that anymore. Mostly because nothing can be transmitted by letter of operational significance...just too much lag time. I am fairly sure that phone calls are monitored (how frequently, I have no idea). Just as I am sure that email sent from AKO (Army Knowledge Online) accounts are probably monitored by an automated program. I accept that because I don't want some moron posting the day and time of my next mission where someone can get to it and use it to set up an ambush. (Anyone remember Geraldo's huge gaff earlier in the war?)

They can't shut it down completely. That would be a violation of free speech, but they can monitor it and let you know when you've broken the rules. And that's acceptable.

[Rebecca]

It would be a real shame to see military blogs shut down, provided they are not violating OPSEC. I know they have helped many spouses in dealing with deployments and just to understand more. The support that can be found in them for the service member and their families is incredible as well.

Hopefully this isn't a slippery slope to complete censorship.

[Val]

"....blogging isn't good for the war effort. I know that's a wee bit far-fetched...."

I am coming to believe that you can't be too paranoid about what this administration will do.

Where is the news coverage of our wounded? ON the NET!

Find out more at my site with it's links.

[Lisa]

Val...

This Administration has absolutely nothing to do with what is covered in the news. You need to be looking to the liberal main stream media for the answer to your question.

Mitchell...

From everything I've read, most of the milbloggers are OK with this. Works for me. As I said in my post, I have no clue about what soldiers should or should not talk about.

I do have a question for you though. What did you mean by the rules cover regular websites?

Thanx,
Lisa

[MissBirdlegs in AL]

The Milblogs I read seem to do a good job of minding OPSEC yet giving we readers a 'feel' for what's going on. If I read a blog that seems to say more than I think is good for the service or the country, I don't go back to that blog. I have worked where I was required to have a fairly high security clearance and there are just some things that I don't think the whole world should know - I know I don't want to know everything that goes on - it's not my business! I have read one or two that made me feel uneasy, so I just drop them from my list.

[Mitchell Land]

Lisa,

The rules don't cover just blogs. They also cover websites with plain old HTML, etc. I guess, to be more accurate, the rules actually cover any public-facing Internet site of which blogs are a subset.