Soldiers Iraq Blogs Comfort Moms, Anger Some Commanders

[cal04]

Buzzell and a handful of others write unvarnished war reporting. A few of these blogs have been shut down, and Buzzell, an infantryman in an Army Stryker brigade, says he was banned from missions for five days because of the blog and has stopped adding new narrative entries.
On the blogs, soldiers complain, commiserate and celebrate their victories and ingenuity.

Military bloggers say they're careful not to reveal any information that would be useful to enemies. "Nowhere does either blog say where I was or give out full names of anybody but myself," Dustman said.

"The Internet is such a wonderful tool to keep soldiers connected with their friends and family and has a huge morale impact that prohibiting access would create a huge outcry," wrote Eric Magnell, a lawyer whose blog, http://www.daggerjag.blogspot.com, chronicles his work with the Army as it tries to build a legal system in Iraq. "The Army isn't a sinister organization looking to trample individual freedoms, but, as any large bureaucracy, it can be slow to react to new situations and changes in the environment."

Said Dustman, "Most people do have their minds made up about the war, but bloggers let them know that we're human too, just like them. We're the best way for the public to take a pulse on how we're handing the situation."


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBW0H8AKZD.html

[madrchsod]

1. warblogging.com

is banned by centcom-great site by a retired military guy. check it out...

[BootinUp]

2. Thanks for the link.

checkin it out, looks good!

[KittyWampus]

3. Why Shut Them Down? Sounds Like It's Hurt Morale

[sffreeways]

4. They don't seem to care about morale

I often wonder how the troops feel about not having the dead being brought home shown to the American people. I think if I were fighting over there I'd want America to know what the price was my friends and I were paying.

When I read this stuff my heart breaks for these guys and gals over there being used for cannon fodder for Bush's illegal war.

The point of banning the blogs seems simply to be to keep them from telling us back home how bad it is.

Bush would have us all with hoods on our heads if he could.