Social networking, and blogging in particular, has had a profound impact on how members of the military articulate their experiences, and they've developed large, influential social networks that function as support systems, outlets for commentary, and, as many military bloggers (or milbloggers) see it, beacons of American freedom.

Now, the Department of Defense and the Army are cracking down on milblogs, citing OPSEC (Operational Security) violations. While the majority of milbloggers are pro-war and don't question the need for tight security, they've been upset at the crackdown, which threatens their online communities and treasured access to the outside world. Some milbloggers think that they're writing actually aids the military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that, among other things, letting soldiers blog openly helps win the vital PR component of the "War on Terrorism."

A writer at the Tanker Brothers milblog wrote:

Now, unofficially speaking, I think the DoD is making a huge mistake crippling the MilBlog movement. MilBlogs have been instrumental at keeping the American Public informed, and getting the good news of the War on Terror out to people that would otherwise never hear it. And the American public is hungry for news like that. The American public is starving for news like that.

It's striking to see members of the military fighting for more transparency. Their reasons will be understandable to many readers here, if a little jingoistic. One commenter on the milblog Black Five wrote:

Near the entrance to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio is a copy of a letter sent by the Army to Wilbur and Orville Wright that declines to purchase their new invention because they see no military application for a flying machine. When I read of the clampdown on milblogs by the US military, I see the same blind resistance to technology at work...

What do the jihadis learn from milblogs? Discovering the tracer pattern on ammo belts is trivia. What jihadis see is that the lowest ranking member of the US military is free to speak his mind, free to criticize his government, free to command his own future. That, my friends, is a very explosive idea conveyed implicitly by every milblogger.

This faith in free expression -- so powerful that even the enemy will be moved -- is not unlike citizens at home calling for a more transparent government. The inability for DoD and Army officials to understand the importance for blogging and social media is yet another example of how so many political figures this year just don't get the nature or influence of social technology.

Tags: blogging, Iraq, milblogging, terror

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