Of course, long gone are the days when blogs were an unknown quantity, and these days blogs by U.S. soldiers will usually be signed off by a superior meaning they are to some degree ‘official’ but I wasn’t after these individual soldier blogs.
By ‘official’ I meant blogs that were started as deliberate public affairs exercises on behalf of a branch of the services, or individual units as the corporate, the professional, the governmental, the NGO and the military began colonising the blogosphere.
Nobody seemed sure but people like @LindyKyzer, @fieldsteven, @salottimc and @milblogging (who also wrote a blog post about it) pointed me in the direction of various pieces of information or other people I might ask.
Using their information and some link-hopping, what appears below is a list by start of date of official U.S. military blogs.
I have no doubt that it is a far from comprehensive list so if you have any to add or reckon I’ve got the date wrong let me know. I’m aware that some blogs might have been disbanded or restarted.
I’m not sure I can yet conclusively answer the question I posed but I’m further forward.
It has been an interesting exercise. For some reason (and I’m not sure why) I was under the impression that the U.S. military had been officially blogging for longer than it actually has.
Initially the strategy of the Department of Defense’s New Media Directorate, set up in October 2006, was to work with and engage bloggers rather than start their own blogs.
(Although @Wodins suggested that official military blogging might have been taking place on ARPANET way before the Internet.)
Official U.S. Military Blogs by Start Date
2004-5
DoD news article suggests a blog written by Capt Steve Alvarez for Orlando Sentinel as part of his official duties in Iraq was "first official U.S. military blog". (Here is a taster…it appears to be no different from any online article).
2006
October – Department of Defense New Media Directorate established; For the Record (Pseudo-blog: see this written by Steven Field for discussion of whether this is a blog)*
2007
October – Bloggers’ Roundtable
2008
Updates: This post has been updated on several occasions to include several other blogs missing from the original post in response to comments and emails.
]]>US intelligence, he argued, is overly focussed on the enemy, unable to answer basic questions about local political, economic and cultural dynamics and is "only marginally relevant to the overall strategy". He also claimed that US military culture was "emphatic about secrecy but regrettably less concerned about mission effectiveness".
The fact that the report was published via the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) rather than through conventional military channels has also raised a few eyebrows.
I’ve selected a couple of interesting blog posts on the report which understandably has invited a significant level of comment:
1. Tim Lynch runs an Afghanistan based security firm. He’s a retired Marine and is not too keen on the intelligence techniques of the CIA in Afghanistan:
"Our vaunted CIA never leaves the wire under any circumstances even in tame places like Jalalabad so all their intel comes from people who walk into the FOB’s. How good is the product they are producing using these risk averse intelligence gathering techniques and procedures? It is worthless – or as the general in charge of military intelligence put it ‘marginally relevant.’"
(It’s worth visiting Lynch’s blog just to check out the slightly alarming comment under a photo of a guard searching people entering a British base in Helmand).
2. Similarly, this civilian advisor based in Regional Command South reckons the authors of the report are spot on:
"There’s lots of information out there about the civilian population in Afghanistan. Where is the closest market? What are the roads like between here and there? Is there a district governor? Does he come to work? What tribe is he from? How many people get “night letters” from the Taliban? Who “controls the night?”
But the problem is that the people who are supposed to collect and analyze intelligence don’t think those questions are important."
3. The Small Wars Journal has a good list of other posts if you’re interested.
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Public Affairs Specialist, Lindy Kyzer, concurs with a number of concerns raised by military bloggers admitting that there are "still areas, and leaders, where blogging in the ranks is not met with open arms", and acknowledging that "most of the issues milbloggers have are with their local command".
Nevertheless, Kyzer highlights that bloggers need to remain within the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Operations Security and are responsible for "maintaining military standards" and "decorum" online.
Perhaps most significantly she said "commanders remain free to set localized policy when it comes to social media use by their soldiers". That might disappoint some military bloggers who have been calling for stronger leadership from senior officers in favour of social media.
It’s also difficult to see how a number of military bloggers would take Kyzer’s advice to avoid politics and not "diss the boss" on their blogs.
Kyzer attempted to portray the ‘US military-military blogger’ relationship as fairly healthy. She dismissed claims of widespread closures of military blogs but said she was aware of one high profile case. (No doubt a reference to that of CJ Grisham which has had significant coverage both in the blogosphere and elsewhere.)
Although there was still progress to be made, she argued that "these days everyone from the Secretary of the Army to battalion and brigade commanders across the field aren’t just supportive of blogging – many of them are blogging themselves".
It will be interesting to see what the military bloggers make of it all.
]]>The trigger for the blogging strike was the treatment of blogger CJ Grisham whose chain of command became involved in his row with a local school. But there appears to be an underlying groundswell of discontent among the military blogging community.
An open letter posted on the influential Blackfive blog outlines several hypothetical scenarios based on real stories where military personnel and their families have faced difficulties as a result of blogging.
The post is addressed to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the military leadership. It is particularly critical of the field grade of officers (major, lieutenant, colonel).
Although blogging and the use of social media is officially supported by more senior leadership, Blackfive and other military blogs have been critical of the field grade for ‘not getting’ military blogs and over-reacting to stories on blogs that are not entirely positive.
The author of the post, ‘Laughing Wolf’, does recognise that these officers often have other pressing concerns, particularly on deployments, but challenges senior leadership to address some of the problems experienced by military bloggers if they genuinely believe blogging is valuable to the US military.
Laughing Wolf suggests that self-censorship is "creeping in" and that the number of bloggers writing about Afghanistan is diminishing.
Military blogs that have been closed down in the past usually get pulled by the individual blogger after pressure or a direct order from their chain of command. Notably, it appears that few blogs actually breach operational security and that they fall foul of internal military politics or are closed for being ‘off-message’.
]]>In the post entilted ‘Hello from Afghan’, Rifleman Andrew Fentiman of 7 Rifles, describes how he was waiting to be transferred to his Forward Operating Base shortly after arriving in Afghanistan two weeks ago.
Several news organisations focussed on one particular line in the post in which Rfn Fentiman said he and his colleagues "are still waiting on these new body armour and helmets that were promised to us."
The comment has sparked further discussion about the equipment provided to British forces at a time when there are mutterings about the possibility of formulating a timetable for British withdrawal.
Merely days after he wrote the post dated 4th November*, Rfn Fentiman was killed on foot patrol in Helmand province.
Media coverage:
*All very minor in the grand scheme of things, but strangely, most of these articles seem to say the post was dated the 2nd November. The blog post I’m looking at says the 4th. Maybe it has been changed for some reason, or it’s just a mistake, or I’m seeing things.
]]>In recent posts, Brothers describes his first foot and vehicle-mounted patrols. In the latter, he disperses "seven or eight teenage boys" throwing rocks by running towards them and reflects on becoming part of the "cliché" of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Interestingly, Brothers also feels it is necessary to write a post about Operational Security because he is aware of the experience of Captain Matthew Gallagher. The US Army Officer wrote Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal, an Iraq war blog which was ostensibly closed down by Gallagher’s superiors because he did not follow the ‘normal vetting channels’ for blog posts.
]]>"Blogging is no longer worth the trouble. Everything is fine as long as the stories are happy and positive. The military wants happy stories, not honest stories. Everything must be 100% in concert with the Army spin. If it’s not, you’re considered an "embarrassment" to the Army, the installation, and/or the NCO Corps. Integrity is no longer an accepted method of leadership. If I can’t be honest and open, I won’t write at all. I refuse to allow my private blog’s message to be dictated with threats and intimidation."
Bizarrely, it appears that one of the primary reasons why CJ Grisham pulled the plug was because of the fall out from a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting at a school in Huntsville that his children attended.
In blog posts that are no longer available, Grisham had alleged that the Principal of the school was ignoring his concerns and those of other parents over a new uniform policy. He also posted a video in which he can be seen robustly challenging the conduct of the meeting. He believed it was not following relevant bylaws.
The school was unhappy with Grisham’s behaviour and contacted his military superiors. In turn, they called the blogger in for "a dressing down by a senior NCO" and issued him with a formal counseling statement. Grisham’s chain of command also asked him to remove the videos he had posted.
Over the course of a month, it seems everything was "blown way out of proportion".
The fact that Grisham continued to blog about the ongoing dispute probably didn’t do him many favours. Entitling posts ‘Piss poor leadership’ before expressing discontent with the conduct of a senior NCO might not have been too popular with his commanders even if Grisham is not currently deployed and the original issue does not directly concern the US Army. (Unless they’ve taken a sudden interest in school uniform policy…)
In the end, it seems Grisham decided it simply wasn’t worth the hassle. Once again, low level politics appears to have brought about the end of a military blog.
]]>I came across a couple of links on media coverage of the London bombings in July 2005 that I hadn’t previously discovered. Maybe you missed them too.
Mike Thelwall did some research into bloggers and the bombings which ‘scratches the surface’ of the use of blogs to cover a major news event:
Interestingly there was:
"…a fall in the percentage share of the top linked-to sites at the time of the attacks, perhaps reflecting a widening of the search for information rather than a sudden reliance on a few authoritative sources."
And we learn that:
"…in comparison to major media representations of the London attacks, blog posts give insights into contemporary discussions and can highlight issues, such as the alleged Iraq connection which may be forgotten or deliberately ignored in hindsight."
I also picked up this article from Media Guardian earlier in the year in which Sky News’ John Ryley claims that Sky’s coverage of the attacks influenced BBC policy on breaking news:
"BBC bosses have admitted that they rewrote their policy after handling of the attacks…News does not usually break cleanly. Big stories emerge in dribs and drabs, bits of information from many sources. Often conflicting and confusing … when a big story breaks we report new information, clearly attributed to its source, even if things turn out differently…It was precisely that policy that the BBC decided to adopt after the London bombings."
US Army and Milblogging
US military bloggers were meeting up at Blog World Expo last week and I see there was a panel entitled, ‘Milblogs: Not your standard news source’, which I’ll have to find out some more about. But in the meantime, Public Affairs Officer, Lindy Kyzer, explains how relations have changed between milbloggers and US Army.
Bonus Afghanistan ‘section‘ (OK. It’s one link. But that’s enough for a section on this blog)
Excuse the in-house appreciation club but Frontline blogger, Alex Strick van Linschoten, and colleague Felix Kuehn, have a great piece up on Foreign Policy drawn from their experience of living in Kandahar. Well worth a read.
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When war takes place among the people, using military force is problematic so the priority is to win the support of the local population by providing security and services and building relationships with village elders.
That’s (a very simplified version, that doesn’t really do justice to) the theory. But here’s what it might mean in practice courtesy of Afghanistan Shrugged:
]]>"The purpose for us coming here is a shura an afghan term for gathering or meeting. This shura is [in] honor of opening two schools in the area...
"Just in our operational area we’ve built four schools, numerous wells, water retention walls and various other projects. We’ve also treated over 700 cases in 9 months…
"The group talks for a long while, drinking chai and then we adjourn to another room for lunch. As I come into the room, I’m hit with dread. It’s covered in flies as is the food. One of my no shit rules is that I NEVER refuse any food or drink given to me by an Afghan. It’s insulting to them. So, I’m going to have to eat.
"I do and pay for it two days later with violent vomiting and diarrhea that makes a claymore mine seem like a fire cracker. 10 lbs and 6 bags of IV fluid later I’ll be fine and my relationship with the elders is intact. A small price to pay for good relations."
In a recent post, Afghan Kush writes about his front line involvement in a day-long engagement with guerrilla forces. Or rather he writes about his dissatisfaction with the coverage of this event by the Army Times. He was unhappy on two counts.
First, Afghan Kush had been reluctant to blog about the details of the fight for operational security reasons and he "didn’t know what exactly we could talk about".
So he was rather surprised by the Army Times article, which revealed the location of the battle, provided video of the Forward Operating Base and mentioned the presence of Special Forces (SF), which Afghan Kush had believed was a "big no go". One rule for the bloggers it seems and another for the Army Times.
Second, he was upset with the portrayal of the fight which he claims was "related by people who wern’t there, weren’t fighting and probably didn’t have a great idea what was going on". He was particularly irritated by the reported comments of Major Cannata in the article:
"Cannata expressed disappointment that although U.S. forces killed about three dozen insurgents without taking any casualties, neither the 1-4 troops nor the SF soldiers had moved forward to conduct any “exploitation” of the bodies to determine the type and origin of their equipment."
And Afghan Kush responded with the following:
"Now even though the fight had been going for over NINE HOURS and when we broke conact, we were still in a fight. We should have MOVED FORWARD to look at the bodies that had been pretty much blown to pieces by aircraft? What the hell? Needless to say I found that a little offensive."
It’s a classic example of why some milbloggers feel compelled to blog and, we learn from the comments, why their blogs get closed down.
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