“The loss of the blogs is bad, but the loss of the uncensored e-mails sent to home is the real act of tyranny here.”
by Ian Mosley
U. S. military personnel have so far been allowed an amazing amount of freedom of speech on the Internet. Their blogs and e-mails home have given their friends, relatives and the country a fascinating glimpse into the reality of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. One cable channel is showing short videos of life in Iraq sent in by our soldiers. This freedom of information is more a result of the Internet than anything planned by the Pentagon. Four years into the Iraq War, reality does not suit the neocons. We know that the overwhelming majority of the soldiers actually fighting these increasingly bloody and pointless wars have no idea what they’re supposed to be accomplishing over there. Bush’s pep talks about our troops “standing down” when the Iraqi army “stands up” make no sense in the real world. The Iraqi army is little better than a joke. Anyone joining the Iraqi army is seen as a collaborator and is putting his life (and the lives of his family) at risk. Four years of occupation has not produced even one battalion of Iraqi soldiers capable of fighting the rebels on its own. There will NEVER be an Iraqi force capable of keeping the rebels under control. The only reason to stay in Iraq any longer is to steal more oil for Halliburton or to appease Israeli paranoia by occupying Iraq for them. Most of our soldiers see the occupation of Iraq as hopeless and wish that they could come home soon.The freedom to post on blogs or even to e-mail their relatives with candid statements about the war may soon come to an end. An http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers reports “The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer…The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say….The new rules obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.”
The loss of the blogs is bad, but the loss of the uncensored e-mails sent to home is the real act of tyranny here. Many military families depend on e-mail for communication with their loved ones in combat zones. In some cases, the families of deceased soldiers have only a string of e-mails to chronicle their loved one’s thoughts and feelings during their last days. From now on, these e-mails are not being allowed until cleared by a censor. Instead of having a spontaneous exchange of e-mails, military wives could be waiting two or three days for a reply to each e-mail. Every word from their soldier will pawed over by some slimy censor sitting safely in the Green Zone assuming we don’t subcontract this censorship to a neocon think tank in Tel Aviv.
According to http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers, “Failure to do so [comply with the censorship rules could result in a court-martial, or administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action.” The term “contractual” is interesting here. It means that the censorship is being applied not only to active duty military personnel, but also to the many civilian contractors from Blackwater’s mercenaries to Halliburton’s truck drivers and petroleum workers.
Leave it to our wonderfully efficient military to make new e-mail rules that the soldiers aren’t allowed to see. http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/05/army_bloggers goes on: “But, while the regulations may apply to a broad swath of people, not everybody affected can actually read them. In a Kafka-esque turn, the guidelines are kept on the military’s restricted Army Knowledge Online intranet. Many Army contractors — and many family members — don’t have access to the site. Even those able to get in are finding their access is blocked to that particular file.”
The sudden censorship of e-mails and candid remarks is an interesting development. This suggests that someone is thinking ahead to a possible situation in the near future when things will turn into a total debacle. It’s not clear how many months or years the Army plans on shutting down the news flow from Iraq. It seems the Army sees a tsunami coming and they’re trying to plug leaks in advance.