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OpFor Does the Boston Globe
By John
Earlier this week, Charlie and I talked with Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe about milblogs. The article ran earlier today, up online here.
There are hundreds of milblogs, and the Pentagon, which has cautiously supported some of them but also has deep concerns about the ability to control them, recently ordered a top level advisory panel to study the issue.'' 'Googling' and 'blogging' are making their way into military operations at all levels," Kenneth Krieg, the undersecretary of defense, wrote in a recent memo requesting that the Defense Science Board look into the matter. ''But the full implications of this revolution are as yet unknown, and we have no clear direction and defined doctrine."
Indeed, some say the new venue brings an institution that has long sought to remain apolitical perilously close to the public square. ''There has long been a separation between the military and political world," said John, an active-duty Air Force officer who runs the blog op-for.com and asked that his full name not be used to protect his identity. ''I don't want to say that milblogs cross that line, but they do gray it."
The vast majority of milblogs focus on day-to-day military operations around the world; many are run by troops in combat. Others focus on weapons and technology.
But the recent furor over Rumsfeld has highlighted how many blogs have become venues for political debates.
''A portion of the milblog world has morphed into debating how things should get done," said Charlie, an Army officer who also writes for op-for.com.
The op-for blog, for its part, has refrained from directly addressing the Rumsfeld fracas to avoid the appearance of taking sides. Rumsfeld is their civilian boss, while many of the former generals who have been critical of Rumsfeld retain friendships in the current forces.
The article painted OpFor as the "middle of the line" milblog as far as the SECDEF-retired generals spat is concerned, which is exactly where Charlie and I felt was appropriate. Milbloggers, particularly active-duty milbloggers, should bring a certain degree of cautiousness to their writing. That includes weighing in on controversial, politicized topics involving members of their chain of command. It only takes one blogger writing on one inappropriate topic to bring down anti-blogging regulations from the Pentagon, a misstep that would affect all of us.
This is a subject I'll be talking about on panel 1 at the milblogging conference.
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Comments
That's not fair! My blog isn't left . . .
unless you have something against freedom.
In the interest of fairness I looked again. I like freedom. How would you prefer your blog be characterized?
Interest-free capital, freedom of information and technology, NO aggressive wars, cohesive families and communities, and sound morals - not selfish exploitative ones (do unto others).
Neither left, nor right, and certainly not center. I guess you can call it FAIR.
They're not left, oh no. They support a revolutionary communist union, but they're not left.
How about anti-semitic conspiracy mongering pieces of fertilizer. That would be the appropriate description of that site and qrswave.
anti-semitic???
bullsh*t! prove it pea-brain!
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The milblogs can OPSEC themselves out of business if they get too paranoid. The active duty milbloggers who are subject to UCMJ action and the reserve milbloggers who might find themselves again subject to UCMJ action do not have full freedom of speech. They have to self-censor to stay out of trouble.
Pentagon control over milblogs is like Border Patrol control over the Minutemen. There is going to be tension between the blogosphere and the DoD Information Operations and Public Affairs bureaucracy, because they are losing the infowar. The civilian and veteran side of the milblogosphere that is not subject to chain of command pressure have a real potential to accomplish for the active duty side what they are not allowed to do. The center of gravity of the Counter-Jihad is the will of the American people. Those working to undermine that will in many cases cannot be countered by the active duty side, for a variety of reasons. Who do we have left?