I was at work at the bookstore today and I came across this book called the “Blog of War.” The title caught my attention as well as the cover of the book which shows a soldier writing in the heat of battle. I only had a chance to briefly read through some passages of the book and was immediately moved by the what was essentially a direct link to the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The back of the book refered to a blog at blackfive.net . This blog seems to be a forum for Military personel not all of whom are still on active duty. It was created by Matthew Currier Burden who was the author on “Blog of War”. There are links to news articles of interest as well as other Military related blogs. There is so much power in having the ability to communicate with the world virtually at your fingertips. I have to admit that I’ve just scratched the surface of reading the blogs of soldiers and others connected to the military.
It’s such a powerful way to get the story of war in such an unfiltered way. I read that the Pentagon/Military isn’t happy about soldiers having the ability to blog. What a shame it would be if censorship creeped in. This seems like one area where Blogging can can help get the stories out in a very direct and quick way.
Most news stations have blogs as well, 360, USA Today, to name just a couple, not to mention all the non military citizen bloggers of the world. It will be interesting to see if soldiers will be able to continue blogging or not. I think they should be allowed this means to communicate what they’re going through. Oh…..I hope none of this was interpreted as partisan in any way. I was mainly just trying to draw attention to the use of blogging in the military.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 18, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Bill
I think the military should be concerned about classified information or troop location information getting out. Censorship of military snail mail has been common, if not policy, for years. I don’t support Mr. Bush or his policies regarding our involvement in Iraq, but it makes sense to keep the military as safe as possible, and blogging by active military members might inadvertantly lead to trouble.
June 18, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Sherry
I’m a fan of military blogs.
Check out Gary Trudeau’s site on Slate.com. He has a page called “The Sandbox” where soldiers can post their stories. Some of them are heartbreaking, and nearly all of them are riveting:
http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/
Here’s another military blog that I sometimes visit:
http://www.tadpolenet.com/warblogs/
I agree with Bill that military concerns about classified information are valid, but I think soldiers are very serious about the safety of their fellow soldiers and are careful. These blogs are important because I think every American should be aware of what our soldiers are going through, as well as the effect of the war on the civilian population. I’m aware that soldiers’ views from the front lines can be myopic, but that’s understandable. Every now and then, a soldier will write an incredibly honest post about what they really think of the people over there, and those to me are the saddest.
I think the war is wrong and our government is even wronger, but that doesn’t effect my support of our soldiers. It’s my duty, I think, to educate myself about everything. Isn’t it interesting that we can get news directly from troops on the front lines? That really says something about Web 2.0. I wonder if this direct access has effected support for the war one way or the other.