After class on Friday I came across a particularly relevant article dealing with a push within the government to censor military blogs. In other words, active soldiers would need to run every blog entry by their commanding officer for approval. In fact it would allow commanders to restrict their units access to facebook, myspace, eBay, or even a simple email client. One blogger himself finds it ironic that in a restriction on Military blogs, the only leeway given by the Army is that articles can be posted as long as they aren't "military related." This was just one new change made to Operations Security (Op sec), an army protocol that defines procedure for controlling the flow of information and resources and how to maintain the security of said traffic.
Does this go to far? I thought at first that the easy answer would be yes, this is ridiculous. But now I'm not so sure. Obviously the soldiers who are part of the blogger community provided a valuable resource to the public at large for giving us firsthand accounts of what is going on. I mean, what better way to get a perspective on the war than by having it narrated by the participants. However, there is always a danger of leaking potentially dangerous information and jeopardizing the mission at hand and more importantly, the lives of the soldiers. It is also a question of logistics; should it really be the job of the commanding officer to read several blog posts per day and decide if they are a possible threat to safety? Won't that bog down his performance and distract him from more critical tasks and decisions? As I pondered this question I realized that the commanders themselves are probably thinking the same thing. So if these changes began to be enforced, we may eventually see the end of blogging within the active ranks, if not a severe curtail in proliferation of such documents. Surely any commanding officer with a good head on his shoulders would immediately spot the difficulties of policing his unit and bearing the responsibility for what comes out of it. It won't be long before bans on blogs of any kind period are enforced. We have glimpsed the light that is soldier-blogging, but savor it; we may soon be back in the dark.
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sorry, forgot the link to the article http://www.slate.com/id/2165707/fr/flyout enjoy!
This is not a new trend. Since World War II, soldiers letters home have been monitered for content. Commanding officers surely looked through the letters home for facts that would put thier unit in harms way. Obviously the soldiers were not giving out vital information on purpose, they just may have said too much in the letter. The letters home could be intercepted giving the enemy locations and movements of units. In this case we are dealing with the interent, where anyone who can get online, can see what has been written. I do not think that the Army is taking this particular matter too far. The military can never be too careful when it comes to the security of thier troops as well as the security of America. We may never know who is watching and reading what the soldiers are writting. Maybe special task forces can be established to read all of these online posts. It may be a hassle and time consuming for some, but it a necessary evil that must be done.
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