Pentagon Shutting Down Some Blogs, Raising Red Flags Among Soldiers

[JABBS]

The Pentagon is shutting down soldiers' blogs, or miliblogs, that it says reveal too much information. In some cases, it is fining or demoting soldiers who fail to follow military guidelines substantially tightened last year.

But some soldiers are saying the military's real goal is to silence or sanitize blogs that reveal the truth about daily life fighting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"The ones that stay up are completely patriotic and innocuous, and they're fine if you want to read the flag-waving and how everything's peachy keen in Iraq," New York Army National Guard Spc. Jason Christopher Hartley, who was demoted from sergeant and fined because of information on his blog, told Newsday.

Jon Peede, director of Operation Homecoming -- a National Endowment for the Arts program that is creating a collection of soldiers' blogs, letters and essays -- told the newspaper that the effect of shutting down some miliblogs is that overall, such blogs are becoming less compelling.

There's less of the informal, often coarse language that gave a feeling of authenticity and attracted thousands of readers both in and out of the military, he said.

***

Coincidentally, the Newsday article came out just as a new Military Times poll was released. The poll, conducted in November and December, finds support for President Bush and for the war in Iraq has slipped in the last year among members of the military’s professional core. Approval for Bush's Iraq policy fell to 54%, down from 63% a year ago.

The drops in support seen in the Military Times Poll are “real drops, but I see them as reflecting the tone of the country,” David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, told the publication.

Is Bush Administration policy creating fodder for the very milibloggers being shut down?

***

The military's reasoning is "loose lips sink ships." It makes you wonder why the Pentagon ever allowed miliblogs to exist in the first place.

It took nearly two years for the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy to adopt stricter guidelines, and to create special security squads to monitor milblogs. Could the military have been so naive as to think that soldiers would only write information unrelated to troop location or activity?

"When you put your blog out there, you cannot forget that not only the good guys, but the bad guys are accessing it," Marine Capt. Don Caetano told Newsday. He spun the stricter military guidelines, saying, "The limitations on blogging basically mean, 'Don't make it easy for them. Don't readily give up information,'" that would endanger U.S. troops.

But soldiers question whether Al Qaeda is actually wading through hundreds of miliblogs in the hope of getting information which by default is past tense -- informal references to troops moved, shots fired, battles fought.

Some also wonder whether the military is going overboard in what it censors. One blog was cited for posting photos of an Abrams tank pierced by a rocket-propelled grenade; the military said the photos could show Iraqi insurgents where to aim.

***

In past wars, the U.S. military didn't have to deal with blogs -- or e-mail, text messaging or videophones, which are not apparently subject to the same monitoring. But it did have to deal with hand-written letters, and diaries, which could have been intercepted.

Could you imagine what might have been of some famous wartime letters, had the current policy been in effect? Consider this Civil War-era letter from a corporal in the 5th Iowa Infantry, which describes troop movements. Or would we have ever seen photographs such as this (or does it give away information on where enemy soldiers were killed?)

Entire books have been filled with letters from soldiers, and no doubt, some of those letters revealed information that the military would have deemed sensitive.

As a nation, we have learned much about our soldiers from unofficial sources -- from Revolutionary War letters to the Abu Ghraib prison photos. It's not always what the miltary wants us to see.

No doubt the military works under rules that the average American does not. But while the military worries about what messages are being sent by its soldiers' miliblogs, it should also consider what message it sends when it turns to censorship.

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[MadisonProgressive]

1. Here is the 20 point difference between civilian and Military

views of the Preznits performance:

As in the previous two years, Military Times Poll respondents were reluctant to express opinions, even anonymously, about the commander in chief or his policies. About one in five refused to say whether they approved of the president’s performance on Iraq or overall.

[LynnTheDem]

2. The MT is over 70% OFFICERS.

OFFICERS only make up 15% of the US military and are overwhelmingly rethuglican.

The other 85% of the US Military is 1/3 rethuglican, 1/3 Dems and 1/3 Indy.

Over 70% of subscribers of the Military Times who respond to such MT polls are OFFICERS and RETHUGLICANS but only make up 15% of the entire US Military.

Now look at what poll result you'd get if you went by the other 85% of the US military...

The majority of the US military think bush is a dickhead war criminal idiot. I know. I live on the largest US military base.