Blogs Chronicle War from Soldiers' Perspectives

A recent policy change drew a negative reaction from one blogger.

On April 19 the Army released an updated OPSEC policy, Army Regulation 530-1. This policy requires Army personnel to consult with a supervisor and their OPSEC officer before posting information in a public forum. This includes letters, e-mails, Web site postings and blog postings among others types of information, according to the policy.

Burden, in a post on his blog "Blackfive", called the new policy "the end of military blogging." While Burden said he fears that this policy would impede Army members from blogging from war zones, Army OPSEC Program Manager Maj. Ray Ceralde, who helped author the revision, said bloggers shouldn't be concerned.

According to Ceralde, the new regulation does not require bloggers to have each post approved by officers, but rather instructs bloggers to alert commanders and OPSEC officers when they initially create a blog. This is similar to the policy already put in place in Iraq, he said. "Soldiers have the right to express themselves as long as they don't reveal information that will subject their unit or personnel to harm," Ceralde said.

Dr. Leonard Wong, an associate research professor in the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, said he believed the information on blogs could be used against American forces.

"We have a very open society, and we are starting to realize that the enemy takes advantage of that," Wong said.

While he couldn't cite a specific example of information from a blog being used against troops, he said the incident of Basra insurgents using Google maps to hit British military targets proves that they're capable of using information posted on the Internet in their attacks.

Most milbloggers that washingtonpost.com interviewed said censorship wasn't much of a concern, though the effects of the newest OPSEC policy have yet to be felt throughout the milblogosphere.

Burden of "Blackfive" said milbloggers have had different experiences because how closely the rules are followed depends on each blogger's chain of command. He is working to get policies loosened. He cautioned that stifling bloggers could cause the most pro-military writers to stop posting because they are more likely to follow the rules, leaving only negative voices behind.

"Most of these people who are blogging are proud of what they do, and they volunteer to do this job. By and large they are a positive voice coming out of this war," Burden said. "You don't want to restrict them too much because they are providing a resource assisting what you are trying to do, which is winning the war."

He wants to see milbloggers who are blogging from the war zones given the same rules as embedded journalists. Bloggers from the home front already have started to receive privileges more closely aligned to those of professional journalists.

Roxie Merritt, the director of new media operations at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, said while bloggers aren't being credentialed like media, the military is taking more time to communicate with bloggers to ensure that they post accurate information. She said the U.S. Central Command was the first command unit to reach out to bloggers. A command team was created to refer bloggers to information generally already available on one of the military's Web sites, according to Merritt.