Army Blogosphere Access

Recently I discovered a Bloggers source material site set up by DoD

The Bloggers' Roundtable http://www.defenselink.mil/Blogger/Blogger.aspx provides source material for stories in the blogosphere concerning the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Global War on Terrorism by bloggers and online journalists. Where available, this includes transcripts, biographies, related fact sheets and video.

Interesting that Blogger resources are offered at DoD but meanwhile the Army has reinforced its approach to restricting and curbing Blogging as noted in its regulations (cited below) and in its restrictions to internet browsing and access to many mainstream blogging sites used by milbloggers.

Army Regulation 530--1: Operations Security (OPSEC) (.pdf) restricts more than just blogs, however. Previous editions of the rules asked Army personnel to "consult with their immediate supervisor" before posting a document "that might contain sensitive and/or critical information in a public forum." The new version, in contrast, requires "an OPSEC review prior to publishing" anything -- from "web log (blog) postings" to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home.

Now it appears for the last several months that the Army has further restricted and blocked access to Blog sites for Military and civilian personnel. While many might argue the current Army intent, I would offer that many Blog sites offer a open and diverse perspective that would be useful for the Army to view for a wide scope of application – Public affairs, Soldier input to support, Family issues, R&D activities.

Curiously Army personnel can still access Al Jazeera news sites but cannot read many of the blogs in the Army’s stand-to magazine, including this one, if they sitting at an army hosted machine. The restrictions actually do not allow my supervisor to review my blog (yes I follow the AR requirements) from his work address and attempts to address with IM community are fruitless.

It is a reflection of knee jerk techno scared senior leadership mandates that restricts access and exploitation of the good Army message using the Blogosphere. We should see the advantage offered by using the tools that are available to tell our story – after all the other side is offering an increasingly uncontested point of view.

No more access to Blogs

Hearing recently that many DoD employees are being denied capability to open blog sites - more of the Mil Blogging restrictions coming to the Military community unfortunately.

This is a shortsighted myopic design that is likely the result of older generational bias against the tremendous tool that is the internet. Instead of harvesting the energy and opportunity present in the supportive communications from the Military community we have silenced yet more voices to the delight of the Non-DoD and thus criticaly skewed liberal bias.

I can't prove the shutdown, but I fear it is truth to DoD employees....As I have noted here before

Military Blogs are being monitored for content – this should come as no surprise… it makes absolute sense that any entity will monitor information flow, opinion, content and will exploit such information whenever possible. In the current conflict that we face it is a sure bet that US, International and enemy personnel monitor all information sources to include Blogs.

Some blogs have stated that this monitoring is somehow a restriction of Blog site freedom of speech… an draconian suppression of the “truth”. I recently experienced the phenomenon with this blog of receiving such monitoring. I will say, there is some intimidation being felt as a mil-bloggers when a military agency “contacts “ the Blog site and offers an alternate point of view or a link to their site. You may have noted the addition of Military sites to several Bloggers lately as they are contacted by such monitoring efforts. The Military establishment efforts are clumsy and becoming increasingly indefensable if an attempt at restricting the reading of opinion - what is next - the shutdown of the opinion page in the Army times?.

I have no doubt that the Defense establishment has likely shut down access to Blog sites as they have acknowledged was done for MySpace, You Tube... It may be done again under the radar of the press this time as a heavy handed local policy or enforcement of the DoD warning that includes a section specifically about blogs.

What is disturbing to me is the sense that opinion, comments on subjective matters such as unit morale, comments regarding the Iraq War in general and other individual opinion topics may be subject to censure. My Fellow Mil-Bloggers all have different views and opinions – the sum of which would paint a pretty accurate picture of soldier and Military oriented public opinion.

We should allow them the right to voice opinion and comment with the caveat that the views expressed are their own on matters of their own choosing when security is not compromised. Commanders should insure that local PAO efforts do not sanitize information within this policy to the point of being the "party line" merely for the sake of conformity to Senior Leadership views. I think we would find that credibility of the Military establishment as a whole will be supported by a free exchange of comment from the soul of its inner workings.

Let the Soldiers speak

The Defense Department restrictions on Mil-Bloggers essentially muzzle a critical voice from Combat Theaters. DOD has dictated that soldiers can no longer use military resources to maintain a personal website which is a restriction that inhibits military blogging from within theater.

I believe the senior members of DOD are off the mark on the issue… its no surprise that the generation raised on radio and Black and White TV may not fully grasp the potential for Internet broadcast from the players in the GWOT effort. I’m not throwing a stone here – I’m in the same mode – I am in awe at the phenomenon that is text messaging, myspace pages, blogs and so forth. I have to get lessons on the jargon and capabilities online and will never be able to really connect like my own kids can.

Most of the generation that is coming of age is more likely to get their information from computer sources than traditional media outlets. Imagine, if you will, 18-22 year olds communicating directly with their peers about what life in the military is really all about… no filters, no fluff, no stuffy old person’s spin on the message… The Army has a special page, or "channel," on YouTube, and plans to launch its new platform no later than June. Once the platform is operational, soldiers will be able to send their clips to the Army for posting, but videos will "only go on the site with the Army's “blessing," The Army maintains that this effort is to "participate in the YouTube community" and counter some of the "misrepresentations" of the Army and Army life already found on the Web. You suppose the Army machine will really convince anyone other than those of us committed to the cause that its worth viewing?

A well meaning attempt by the Army, but we are missing an opportunity for the real gritty, uncensored truth to be available. Aside from real operational security concerns which are largely oversubscribed and usually temporary or manageable, I don’t think we should fear what our soldiers will have to say. Soldiers that are peers to America’s population at all levels and demographics - real men and women in uniform - can effectively counter much of the negative message that proliferates the internet already. We can get effective broadcast of the military message and what serving is all about.

The Internet is full of videos opposed to the Iraq War and the U.S. military. We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel that can tell pieces of the story from another perspective. Enough with the DOD hysteria and fear for letting soldiers express themselves – Let the Soldiers defend and practice Freedom of Speech.

Equipment Shortages in Iraq

Read in today’s stand-to about the current shortage of advanced Frag 5 Armor Kits as reported by Ann Scott Tyson of the Washington Post. Part of that article -

By Ann Scott Tyson
Feb 12, 2007
“The Army is working to fill a shortfall in Iraq of thousands of advanced Humvee armor kits designed to reduce U.S. troop deaths from roadside bombs -- including a rising threat from particularly lethal weapons linked to Iran and known as "explosively formed penetrators" (EFP) -- that are now inflicting 70 percent of the American casualties in the country, according to U.S. military and civilian officials……
Still, Pace said last week that U.S. troops will face a gap of up-armored Humvees and other armored vehicles that will not be closed until July, and according to the Pentagon, commanders will be required to share 500 up-armored vehicles. But the Army said it is not short of up-armored Humvees in Iraq.”

The Article reminds me of the shortfalls experienced when my unit first arrived in Iraq to work for MNSTC-I. We conducted convoys all over the country with ever evolving equipment, thanks to a remarkable rapid fielding effort conducted by AMC. The picture attached is from one such convoy to/from Hillah where we used the vehicle we had which was an unarmored Chevy Suburban with our AK-47s out the window (We had not yet received M-4s) for our convoy. Within a month we had M4 rifles, and add on armored HUMMVs. Another month and we got M1114 Hummvs with better Turrets. Eventually we had full electronics (Blue Force Tracker) and other newest technology devices needed to counter the Threat.
Within the year we were in country we evolved our equipment one hundred fold in terms of capability and technology. We had nothing but the highest praise for the AMC folks serving in theater with us that pushed the greatest technologies and counter measure equipment to us. I can personally attest to fielded items of new technology and performance of such items. With improvements in capability recieved I know that on at least two occasions reciently fielded equipmen saved my team from injury due to enemy action.

The Army and DOD had shortfalls then... physics, testing, production demands and the speed of the supply chain will result in shortfalls now and for the changing conditions in the future – but all good soldiers adapt. The fielding effort behind the soldier in this conflict is better than ever before. Some of the improvement experienced today is due to new ways of doing business. Some is from the use of contractors to support the soldier (thus innovation driven by a fresh point of view and a bottomline efficiency model) .

Everyone wants the newest equipment for our soldiers in the field and they deserve nothing but the best. The people providing it are behind the scenes and often subject to media hindsight 20/20 scrutiny and criticism. The tail of the joint services is served by multitudes of dedicated employees that toil in relative obscurity, but do superb things to get necessary equipment fielded to the fight.

News about the lack of equipment stirs the hearts of those that don’t really know how far we have come in supporting our warfighters. I felt it appropriate to note the Department of Defense has made great strides in improving soldier equipment in response to changing conditions.
There will be future challenges in this effort. New enemy Tactics, techniques and equipment will press our efforts to develop more technological solutions. We can always improve our process and owe that to our soldiers…. But I thought I’d take a second and recognize the toil, effort and patriotism of DOD agency personnel that support the effort. HOOAH!