Lt. Gen. William Caldwell says troops should blog?

Leading General Tells Troops to Start Blogging
By Noah Shachtman May 19, 2008 11:04:00 AMCategories: Info War
In some corners of the military, they can't seem to stop squealing about the security risks that blogs and other social media supposedly pose. At one of the Army's leading intellectual hubs, however, the commanding general there has directed his troops to start blogging.

Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who heads the Combined Arms Center [CAC] and Ft. Leavenworth, told his soldiers in a recent memo that "faculty and students will begin blogging as part of their curriculum and writing requirements both within the .mil and public environments. In addition CAC subordinate organizations will begin to engage in the blogosphere in an effort to communicate the myriad of activities that CAC is accomplishing and help assist telling the Army’s story to a wide and diverse audience."

Lt. Gen. Caldwell, the former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, is a blogger himself, contributing to Small Wars Journal. He made waves in January when he wrote that "we must encourage our Soldiers to... get onto blogs and to send their YouTube videos to their friends and family."

It's a position that appears to run counter to stated Pentagon policy. YouTube is officially banned on military networks. Personal blogs cannot be maintained during duty hours. Many influential blogs are blocked. Stringent regulations, read literally, require commanding officers to review each and every item one of his soldiers puts online. And in televised commercials, screen savers, and flyers, troops are told that blogging is a major security risk -- even though official sites have proven to leak many, many more secrets.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/leading-general.html
Linked from RawStory

Ok, I'll believe it when I read it. When I read blogs and comments like the ones I get in email and find online from them, then I'll believe this is not a replacement for the generals caught with their wallets in the Pentagon's check book.

What I found very interesting is that YouTube is banned, but when they come home, they manage to get their videos up and running. This proves the ban is doing nothing but prolonging what they will do anyway. The brass has finally discovered they are not leaking any secrets or doing anything that would jeopardize operations or their brothers and sisters. Do some of them post outrageous videos that may shock or appall? Absolutely, like the puppy toss video and the one where some soldiers were mocking the Iraqis, but these are not the usual videos they produce.

I've seen some great documentary work done by these men and women and it's giving us a picture of what they are going through. Their stories will be told either now or later when they're home, so there is no point in banning them from doing it.

One more thing and this is a personal one. It ticks me off that the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot even get to videos like mine to help them begin to heal sooner. Too many of them know there is something wrong with them but they do not know what it is. Yes, even today, there are still too many who know nothing about PTSD. They can't find out until they get home or manage to get onto one of the Navy ships with the wisdom to show my videos to the Marines coming home.

They are also not aware of the fact so many across this country are not only supporting them for real, fighting to make sure they get the benefits they need, praying for them and, most important, paying attention!