And Then There's These People...

Just the other day IN THIS POST I wrote about well meaning Milbloggers who may have jumped the gun when it came to getting all hot and bothered about the ability of deployed people like myself to post blogs or watch You-Tube while living in our desert summer home.

Well, today while casting around the Internet looking for nude pictures of Reagan Yun and Kiran Chetry (not together...although that might be hot...but that is another post), I ran across a link to a post, written by a Mr. Rieckhoff, HERE.

Warning, some nuttiness follows:

Here's a little piece of it... (SARCASTIC comments in ORANGE are mine)

But the Army's sweeping new policy isn't just aimed at keeping vital operational details off the Internet. The new regulations say that a soldier must:

"Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum. [...] This includes, but is not limited to letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail (e-mail), Web site postings, web log (blog) postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation."

That sounds like the Army wants to approve every single email or blog comment sent by any of the 154,000 troops in Iraq. Of course, the Army's public affairs machine (if the PAO is a machine, it resembles a model T Ford that has rusted out and is sitting on blocks in my uncle's front yard) has since backtracked, via a press release:

"In no way will every blog post/update a Soldier makes on his or her blog need to be monitored or first approved by an immediate supervisor and Operations Security (OPSEC) officer. After receiving guidance and awareness training from the appointed OPSEC officer, that Soldier blogger is entrusted to practice OPSEC when posting in a public forum."

But it doesn't matter what the Army's public affairs told the media. The unclear and broad regulations still stand. The new rules will have a chilling effect (BURRRR! Is it cold in here? No it's just the new AR on blogging and e-mail usage ripping my heart and soul out...Damn you US Army) on troops trying responsibly to share their experiences with their families and communities back home. In fact, the rules are just vague enough to make even the most conscientious milbloggers wonder if they've crossed the Army's vague new line. Many, perhaps most, will choose not to take the risk. (Yes, because we are for the most part, a cowardly lot)

Sadly, the wholesale silencing of military bloggers won't keep American tactics from the insurgency. The ability of our enemies to learn and adapt is well-documented. (So to HELL with OPSEC...FUCKIT, let's just post our OPORDs on a public website so the enemy will know when and where to be when we want to have a fight) But the Army's censorship will keep the world from hearing troops' stories and learning about what is really happening on the ground. And that, too, is dangerous to our cause - as military analyst and Iraq veteran Phil Carter has documented in Slate Magazine. (How did we ever win WWII without blogs and e-mail? Or DID WE?)

Just as we did at the start of the war, we need now to hear directly from the troops if we are going to understand what's actually happening on the ground in Iraq... and what few courses of action we have left. (Yeah, I'd say your willing to listen to the troops as long as they think the same way you do...but heaven forbid that they disagree with the conclusions you've reached...then they are brian washed little dupes)

And thanks to the morale-crushing new regulation that forbids our troops serving multiple tours from watching "Lazy Sunday" and Nora the Piano-Playing Cat, there'll be plenty of time for them to write blogs. (Sorry Dude, I'm in Iraq right now and I can still do all those...wait... fighting my Commander...he's trying to pull the plug...WOW...I thought for a minute, they were going to cut me off...really...I mean it.)

Yes, if it weren't for e-mail and blogs the truth would never get out. I suppose with the advent of computers and the Internet, we are all so stupid that we can't sit down and write a letter, put it in an envelope, walk to the mail drop and send it to your chosen pen pal? And what about all those damned phone centers we have over here...shut those things down as well.

BUT I WANT MY JUICY WAR NEWS NOW!

Sorry, it's all part of the evil war machine's plan, if we keep news that actually reaches the shores of the Continental Unites States at least ten days old...no one will pay attention to it...because it's all ancient history....BWAAAAAH!

Of course I'm just a shill for the evil DOD, who ruthlessly takes cynical advantage of my idealism to further their plan to dominate the world and take everyone's oil. So why should anyone listen to me? Why indeed.

We're doomed.