A SOLDIER'S PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB'S LEADING MILITARY BLOG SINCE 2004
As if being invited by the President of the United States to the White House for an hour-long chat about military bloggers weren’t enough to convince the Pentagon that we are great tools for getting the truth out, Army Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV is pleading with the armed forces to give milbloggers a chance. LTG Caldwell isn’t just any general. He commanded the mighty 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq recently.
LTG Caldwell suggests a four step approach to accomplishing this.
Naturally, the first step in ENCOURAGEMENT. If Soldiers aren’t encouraged to tell their story, they’ll never seek the means to do so. There is a mindset within the military that talking to the media or populace directly is dangerous and should be avoided without a public affairs official. This is nothing to be afraid of.
To get Soldiers to tell their story, they need to be EMPOWERED to do so. Look, Soldiers are entrusted with some weighty responsibilities compared to their peers outside the military. Soldiers in the their late teens and early twenties are required to make life and death decisions on a daily basis. Why should blogging about military life be any different?
The way to empowerment is through EDUCATION. If we train Soldiers on Operations Security (OPSEC) and classification within their mission sets, they will make sound judgments just as they do when they decide to pull the trigger. When I talk about education – and I hope the General agrees with me – I’m not talking about spin training. I mean telling it like it is without violating regulations and putting people’s lives in jeopardy. If Soldiers are taught how to deal with people and convey messages through the written and spoken word in a public forum, the more empowered they are to act on that encouragement without getting in trouble.
Finally, LTG Caldwell suggests we EQUIP Soldiers with the tools necessary to tell these stories. That probably means lifting many restrictions placed on Soldiers in the combat zone. Currently, anyone blogging in theater is required to get consent from their supervisors and security officials. General Caldwell suggests equipping units with camcorders with which they can document both missions and private life. In the Army we have all kinds of “additional duties” that range from NBC, to Intelligence Oversight, to Equal Opportunity. Why not add “Historical Preservation” or “Unit Media Relations” to the list? General Caldwell states, “The enemy video tapes operations and then distorts and twists the information and images to misinform the world. What if we had documented video footage of the same operations which refuted what our enemies say?” I agree. And not only with that, but with the fact that we need to be the FIRST one to get these images and words out!! In the war of words, you never win playing catch up. Ask any political candidate! Just look at the comments under recent posts here to see how people will believe anything initially, but convincing that information is wrong is an uphill, and perhaps impossible, undertaking.
Hattip to 1SG Troy for the link.
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LT Nixon
The only concern I have with LT Gen. Caldwell’s article in Small Wars is that he may want a mechanism to shut down or silence milblogs that don’t “tow the party line” so to speak. I think it’s important to hear all perspectives on the wars from the most pissed-off, bitter soldier to the most gung-ho, proud to be an American type soldier. If the military powers that be start up some kind of “program”, that might run contrary to the freewheeling nature of the blogosphere.
But I’m certainly glad that he wants to ease up these ridiculous restrictions. It’s not like milblogs are drawing up maps about how to sneak on the FOB, no one is that stupid.
The President invited milbloggers to the white house! I didn’t know that. Did you meet Jenna? Later.
Ken Hoop
any truth to the rumor on daily paul that his website his being blocked for US troops who are demoralized in Iraq?
Ken Hoop
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/32737
any truth here?
White Rose
wish they ahd done this a long time ago. If they had, I might still be working over there supporting the troops myself instead of KBR firing me for bulls**t reasons.
Grumpy
CJ, This is what you call a very dangerous General. Why? Answer, He is using something out of the past, called “common sense”. He is the one who is getting into trenches where the battle is really fought. What is our target? The hearts and minds, not just the Iraqi people, the real targets are the hearts and minds of the American people, especially our young people.
It has been said, “The best security for the United States of America is the perception of transparency. Everytime this Country classifies a document or concept as secure, the more it actually loses real security and trust.” If our leaders would very carefully choose those things which are not controversal, we would be a great deal more secure Nation. If the policies and practices are always covered in secrecy or executive privilege, then the real security of the Nation are compromised. Plausible deniability is not an acceptable defense, we know this from Watergate and the Trials of the Nazis at Nuremberg at the end of WWII.
But, if on the other hand, the people have the perception of transparency, they are not looking for everything and a sense of trust develops. This is where the General’s idea continues the process of helping to foster even more trust. The neat thing is this, as we begin to see trust develop, we’ll see the importance of blogging in the overall strategy of the growth of our Military. The Nation begins to see the importance of the elders of the village or community as they begin to build bonds with our Military. The Elders begin to see themselves as extensions of the Military in this Global War on Terror. This starts the process for the elders to become the contact points for the younger people to gather input on this issue. This is what you really want, context and balance.
Grumpy
CJ
Ken, there is no truth to that. I just got emails back from several friends in both Iraq and Afghanistan and they have no problems getting onto political sites. They haven’t heard of people laying down their arms and refusing missions. It’s just more grist for liberals (and extreme right wing wackos) to suck up into their spongy minds and pass off as truth.
Isaac
I agree with Lt Nixon, some restrictions are just not needed. In my country, so much red tape is needed to say everything about the Army is “secret”, including uniforms and how to wash them. As what my brother’s SSG said, “We might as well go home in underwear!!”
Oh yes, can you post a direct link to the photo, I think it is great. Something the MSM always misses.
LT Nixon
There’s some issues with internet connectivity right now in theater. It doesn’t have anything to do with politics though. It’s not a big conspiracy so the military can hear the messages of Dr. Paul, I assure you Mr. Hoop. No worries.
SoldiersDad
“any truth to the rumor on daily paul that his website his being blocked for US troops who are demoralized in Iraq?”
I used to get emails from RCT-2 PAO’s…to post on my blog…but the PAO’s don’t have access to my blog…orignally they asked for a copy of the article if I encluded anything from there press release…I sent them back a link…they sent back asking for a screenshot because they couldn’t access my blog.
The IT bandwidth gods block whatever the IT bandwidth gods command…it doesn’t have anything to do with “content”.
Nicki Fellenzer
Not only is the military beginning to embrace milbloggers and blogging in general, the Pentagon has developed a program called Blogger’s Roundtable.
When I was deployed, I blogged with no problems, but if I blogged about the mission at all, I ran it by JAG just out of courtesy to ensure there were no OPSEC issues.
Army Sergeant
Awesome, if the General likes all sides.
That said, I will point out that it may just be that some government computers have the usual crazy government protections on them. You know, the ones where someone somewhere decides that a certain site is off-limits and suddenly the whole network is. I remember one time CNN was banned. Another time, an entire email service because it offered chat. That one went over well.
It’s probably not a widespread conspiracy theory.
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