Re: CENTCOM

I wandered over to technorati to see how many blogs they are tracking now. Looks like they've given up on counting, but there is a quote at the top of the page that implies 55 million. Rumsfeld wanted to credential them all, but Shinseki told him it would take too many troops. At least, that's what my CENTCOM contacts say.

Speaking of 55 million blogs, here's one you might not have heard of:

The U.S. military is proud of its history and strength as a top-down organization, with a clear chain of command. In fact, you can’t talk to anyone in military public affairs (the equivalent of private-sector public relations) without hearing the inevitable phrase “chain of command” in response to a question.

And that’s the problem for the military, when it comes to new media and bottom-up messaging: How can it join the communications revolution when it can’t organizationally grasp the democratization of media with blogs, online video and podcasting?

That’s why one Pentagon public affairs specialist Steve Field (pictured above) recently left his post for a job at Edelman PR. Field, 24, had been writing a fascinating blog about new media and the military called D-Ring PR, a literal reference to the Pentagon ring where he had worked. But in late October, he left the military after three years because he knew it would take a Herculean effort for the military to really “get” new media.

RE: CENTCOM and Credentials

Can I come to CENTCOM's defense here?

I've generally had a warm relationship with PAOs since I've started blogging. Officials from both CENTCOM and SOCOM send me stories regularly, as do a handful of other public affairs officials. The Navy is by far the best at this, I get press releases from three different fleets (which I consolidate simply by reading Eaglespeak regularly). I'm not trying to toot any horns and say "hey look at me! I'm important!" here, just pointing out that there are some elements of the military who understand the importance of media battlespace, and that there are some who don't.

I suspect Patterico's case is an isolated incident, probably from a guy who lacks vision beyond his reg books.

Unless of course milbloggers carry more weight with the DoD than civilian bloggers, which I suppose would make sense.

NATO has a family squabble

If you aren't keeping an ear on what Afghanistan is bringing out of the Quebec City summit getting ready for Riga, you should. NATO is growing up.

“NATO is about solidarity and sharing burdens and risks,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, urging NATO parliamentarians to lift restrictions on their soldiers so they can assist Canadian, British and U.S. soldiers who are fighting the toughest battles in southern Afghanistan against the Taliban.

“I won't start the blame game,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said. “You will not hear me mentioning names and blaming allies in public.”

The corridor talk here was pointed. Parliamentarians from France, Italy and Germany were repeatedly asked why they would not lift so-called caveats that limit where and when their troops can operate.
...
Some soldiers are told by their governments they cannot fight at night.

Others are not permitted to fight at all, but simply to stand guard in safe areas.

“And there will be no restrictions. No caveats. Our commandos will fight the terrorists, ” Polish delegate Ryszard Gorecki said.

CENTCOM and Credentials

Lately, CENTCOM has been doing some good things with respect to the information war (finally). I've been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks. However, stuff like this makes me want to scream.

I spent much of the weekend chasing down a story about the L.A. Times’s misreporting of an incident in Iraq. As part of my investigation, I corresponded with the press folks at CENTCOM. We ended up exchanging a few e-mails, as I tried to obtain a clear and unambiguous statement that I could use. (You’ll likely be reading more about this in the next 2-3 days.)

The final e-mail I received began this way:

Sir –

Thank you for your support for the troops; we appreciate your attempts to set the record straight on your blog; which by the way is very impressive and does have quite a following. However, this forum is reserved for credentialed media outlets. If we stop to answer every blogger in world who has a question we will be inundated. Our first priority is getting the credentialed media the correct information as quickly as possible so that they can present a balanced story. That in itself is quite a challenge, as you can imagine, in the fog of war and with intricacies of this mission. I hope that you will not take offense and understand, but please refrain from contacting the Press Desk unless you can provide media credentials.

Translation: “Let me say this politely. You are just a blogger and we have real media to deal with.”

To be fair, Patterico says this experience seems to have been an isolated incident.

On the bright side, this appears to be an isolated incident. Other bloggers have put me in touch with press officers who have been excellent in providing context and additional information. The military needs more of that.

Yeah, yeah - I know, it makes sense for CENTCOM to grant priority to the "traditional media" rather than bloggers because of the reach and readership/viewership disparity. I'll give you that, makes sense. However, as we've all seen, credentials on the part of the mainstream media mean very little. In fact, the credentialed set routinely use their credentials to undermine the War on Terror. So given that, is CENTCOM's strategy working?

Perhaps one of you creative types can come up with a graphic for MilBlog credentials and Greyhawk can issue them. I suppose they would mean about as much as any other media credentials. Or maybe not.

By the way, only "credentialed" milbloggers will be allowed to cover the MilBlog Conference (joking, unfortunately.)

H/T Malkin

Spiritual Warfare: Lt. A. Kinard, USMC

As Matt says, it's Time for Spiritual Warfare, ladies and gentlemen.

Three weeks ago, Marine Lieutenant Andrew Kinard was on patrol in Iraq and was hit by an IED (three other Marines were hit, too). Apparently, before shock set in, Kinard established security and asked about his men, then passed out. The damage to his body was extremely severe. I don't know who the hospital corpsman was who assisted Lt. Kinard, but I know that Kinard went into cardiac arrest twice and lost most of his blood - whoever that corpsman is, he is a miracle worker. Andrew was flown to Al Asad (by that time had used 67 units of blood), then Germany and now Bethesda. He has lost his right leg above the knee, the left leg at his pelvis, and he has lots of internal damage to his intestines, kidneys, etc. He's on a ventalator. He is fighting infections. He's been awake only a few times since his injury.

Once he recovers, he'll be moved to Walter Reed for rehabilitation.

So, if ever there was a case for your faith, prayers are needed for Lieutenant Kinard, especially that he may have strength in his kindneys and pulmonary system to survive long enough to have surgery to fix critical functions and survive a kidney transplant.

At the apex of his need, please keep Lt. Andrew Kinard in your daily prayers.

As we approach the holiday that is Thanksgiving, I will stand at my family's table and profess simply that I am thankful for men such as this. We are all indebted to his sacrifice and the sacrifices of those like him, not the least of which are the Navy corpsmen and their often unheralded service, first responders of the most heroic sort. (Video here.)

Semper Fi and Godspeed, Lt. Kinard.

Spread the word...

Kit Up! Launches

I think The First Lady may have already posted this (when she wasn't busy talking about "global orgasms", that is) but I'm going to repost anyway.

Military.com has a new blog, Kit Up!, that's dedicated exclusively to military gear. Don't confuse it with Defense Tech, this place is targeted exclusively at grunt level toys.

I've already found a most excellent new piece of camping equipment that will be accompanying me on my next trip to the Snowy Range, an old German mess kit from the second World War.

German engineering at its finest. I can't wait to try this sucker out.

A bit of Viet Cong Propaganda

...sent to me via email:

It - or something like it - may have helped launch a political career, and inspired a famliar phrase...

Seaplanes and a submarine

A plan for a "Seaplane Striking Force" and an unusual idea for refueling at sea.

Details here.

Live from the ????

Okay, it looks like my heterosexual blogging partner Charlie has officially set up the OPFOR foward command post, although he hasn't revealed his location yet, so neither will I.

The First Lady knows , but Andi is so tight lipped about things the secret is probably safer with her than with me.

Anyway, go read Charlie's post, which is more gooey than a batch of homemade brownies. He got all "man on the wall" on me.....which I think means that he's in for a loooong deployment.

Meanwhile I'll continue to sleep peacefully under that nice warm blanket of freedom that Charlie keeps telling me about.