See the story here:
Tim here filling in for Rick who is on the road. To introduce myself I am a milblogger and am somewhat shocked at the what the Pentagon has just done. I say somewhat because there is a part of me that is never surprised by anything the military does. What shocks me the most about the situation is that the Pentagon is going in the opposite direction of where we need to go right now. Let me explain.
The world over knows that our enemy (terrorists will suffice) will never be able to beat us on the battlefield. Heck the terrorists even know that. So what do they do? They beat us with propaganda. ‘Terrorists’ are masterminds at using the media to further their cause, and we (USA), seem hell bent on doing all that we can to lose the war on that front. If we can’t convince people in America that that the war on ‘terror’ is the right thing to do, then we will never be able to garner the support needed in order to win on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So what does my theory have to do with the fact that the Pentagon has banned Milblogs? Well during my time blogging while deployed to Iraq I was able to give a real picture of what life was like on the ground. I received countless emails from people the world over thanking me for telling it like it really was. Most people have a strong desire to understand what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan and one of the main sources (up until now) where they got their information was from soldiers like myself. Now that the Pentagon has changed that everyone will once again have to rely upon the MSM for their “news”. So go ahead and voice your opinion if you think soldiers should be given the right to tell the world what is really going on. Believe you me, if the world really knew what it was like on the ground in Iraq they would be behind us 100 percent.
Be sure to check out the Milblog Conference.
“…soldiers should be given the right to tell the world…” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all bloggers are created equal?
Don’t we already have the right to tell the world?
There is something very sinister about this decision by the Pentagon – more to the story than just a ban on milblogs.
Either way it is utterly unacceptable from a Constitutional level and from a PR level. Blogs are the military’s best and brightest PR machine.
I’d very much like to know who/what pressured the Services into taking this milblog crackdown action. The general news I get from Milblogs is that though the situation’s rough sledding in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s not Chicken Little time over there, like some parties would very very much want us all to believe.
James Greenidge
Queens, NY