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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, the call sign of a real military guy currently serving somewhere in Iraq. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

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June 18, 2005

Pravda

Greyhawk

Paul Rieckhoff in the Huffington Post has advice for milbloggers:

In other words, you should probably keep it to pictures of you and the guys handing out candy, or you can reasonably expect to get your blogger-butt kicked by the folks over at AWRAC.

I think most military bloggers could formulate an appropriate reply using no more than two words.

He's responding to the news that it's become official policy that you can't publish classified information on your blog, and stretching the truth a bit, to put it kindly. What seems to frighten so many people about milblogs is that we don't support their characterization of us as helpless victims - and that's certainly what he's trying to portray us as here.

Watch this tactic deployed frequently now. Where in the past many could ignore the milblogs the sheer numbers are making that harder to do. The bogus claim that milblogs are censored by some sinister cabal will be the response. We can safely be ignored now - only those who toe the line are allowed to blog, you see. We're good little soldiers covering up the fact that we're being slaughtered in Bushitler's oilwar for Cheney's Halliburton cronies in Iraq.

A more detailed response to this issue can be seen here.

*****

Paul is an OIF vet and the founder of Operation Truth.

Previous Mudville posts on topic:
Just Another Stripe (Down the Toilet of Life)

Blogging by the Book

Free Speech From Those Who Help Make it Possible

Posted by Greyhawk at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) |

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I went to the Operation Truth website and it has a list of military blogs with excerpts: a lot of them are the same blogs you link to in your milblogger 'circle' - one of the excerpts is from a soldier's blog complaining about lack of armor. I went to the blog looking for that particular quote but couldn't find it on a cursory inspection (a very cursory inspection. I bet it is there if you look around.)

Some of the other military blogs I've read have had the same complaints (ok, at least one other one and I can't remember the name or url right now). Wouldn't that undercut the thesis that the blogs are being policed so that only the rah-rah ones are allowed? Anyway, control of information in any large organization is always an issue. I am a 'medblogger' and I'm always cautious what I put up on my site because of confidentiality issues, and also, a patient whose biopsy I've looked at might somehow read what I write and I want them to think I'm, you know, a decent person and all.

Would it be very hard to get around these rules if you really wanted to? I should think that if the troops are really, really unhappy in large numbers in Iraq, that in this multi-media age it would be difficult to hide, no matter how hard you tried. But I'm just guessing....

Posted by MD at June 18, 2005 11:08 PM

I think it's part of a two-pronged approach to try to silence everyone who supports the war. If you're in the military, your blog is obviously censored to conceal bad news and no one should believe anything it says, and if you're not in the military, you're a chickenhawk and no one should believe anything you say. A classic example of the 'heads I win, tails you lose' style of argument.

Posted by Dr. Weevil at June 20, 2005 04:35 AM

While not a "mil-blogger" I am a vet.

I read what Paul Rieckhoff said and I am not sure what you mean.

He said NOTHING which I did not find to be true and accurate. I used to read Jason's Mil-blog and found it to be great!

I am very pissed that some jerks in the military did what they did to Jason.

Posted by neil Reinhardt at June 20, 2005 05:54 AM

NOR do I understand this:

"We're good little soldiers covering up the fact that we're being slaughtered in Bushitler's oilwar for Cheney's Halliburton cronies in Iraq."

Are you serious?

Anyone who does not know our actions in Iraq to remove Saddass from power and to free the people of Iraq are FULLY JUSTIFIED are either ignorant of the facts OR they are too stupid to understand the facts!

Neil C Reinhardt

former 101st Airborne and as an Atheist I am sure NO neo-con.

Posted by neil Reinhardt at June 20, 2005 06:05 AM

Reinhardt, I posted my response to your foolish message in a different thread higher up:

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=3017

Posted by Willysnout at June 20, 2005 05:02 PM

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June 18, 2005

Pravda