Asymmetric Military

I wish I had a blog while I was deployed to Iraq in 2005. It would have been a fun distraction from my duties (I also would have caught the front end of the blog craze instead of coming in slightly behind in October of 2006).

The brass wasn't aware of blogging at the time, at least I wasn't aware of their state of awareness (of blogging). I didn't know about blogging either. Some of the younger soldiers were into Myspace (there was at least one fight because of Myspace postings). Youtube wasn't around. So, it wasn't an issue.

Commanders are aware now. There are policies in place to make sure soldiers' online activities don't compromise operational security (OPSEC) or morale (people's egos). I haven't had any problems with Asymmetric except for the time an LT at a unit I was thinking of transferring to told me that some of the things on my site may be inappropriate for a military officer, referring obviously, to some of my political posts. I'm not a hate-blogger or devote time to gossip so I didn't worry too much.

However, I'm ambivalent to the whole blogger-freedom issue. The first professional responsibility of any soldier is to his unit's mission. If blogging interferes with that, then the commander has to stop it, simple as that. That would be the policy in my command, anyways.

Is C.J. Grisham of A soldiers Perspective guilty of doing anything wrong? Unless the Taliban plans to infiltrate his home town's school to put a pro-Taliban article in the school paper, I don't think so:

In early October, C.J. started using A Soldier's Perspective as a vehicle to protest the decision to switch to uniforms mid-year at his children's school. On this blog he posted an unflattering video of school officials at a PTA meeting, an open letter to the superintendent and, of course, documented the ensuing trials and tribulations with unflagging passion. As a result, C.J. says members of the school board contacted his army commanders to complain about his candid blog, asking him to remove all relating posts.

Those very requests drove C.J. to shut down A Soldier's Perspective in early November. "Blogging is no longer worth the trouble," he wrote in a final post. "Everything is fine as long as the stories are happy and positive." This abrupt closure, which garnered much attention within the milblogging community, also grabbed the attention of Cat5 Commerce, an online retailer. In December, C.J. partnered with Cat5 in order to keep his blog afloat.

So, if Mr. Grisham hasn't degraded his primary job, then I wish him well.

I saw this story on CNN. I went through that. I'm glad I did: It's always interesting to be placed in a new situation, and basic training was definitely that for me. I feel that the Army taught me a lot. Not just about rifles and tactical movement, but about people. Stressful situations expose character, positive and negative, and the Army does cause that stress.

At the same time, the quicker ones figure out that the Army isn't like the first year of law school: They'll do everything possible to keep you there.

I look back at some of the things and laugh, or wince. The awe we felt at the sight of officers and drill sergeants; How much we cared about shining our boots and keeping quiet. Anyways, I'll write a little more about it later.