Blogs Away!!!

The current buzz around the blogosphere has been squarely focused upon the Army's idiotic decision to informally cut the legs out from under the Milbloggers. Here's a snippet of the new rules:

"Army personnel must Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum.

(1) 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."

I certainly don't want to rip the Army mercilessly, since they are allowed to rule their organization with an iron fist. However, I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. Most of the Milbloggers publish the war stories that you cannot find anywhere in the mainstream media. They publish everything from the heroism of the average soldier to the reconstruction efforts continually going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Look, I can see the Army's point. They are wary that some knucklehead will post operational details or top secret information which can be gathered by the enemy. While I think that this is a genuine concern, I also believe that shutting down the Milbloggers (or at least censoring them) is like throwing out the baby with the bath water. The United States Army dropped the ball.

Whoever thought the brass at The Pentagon would be bucking for a Section 8?