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April 2005
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Cartoon by Jeff
Bacon.
"Today was more intense than our last day of fighting. We woke up early and moved into our objective before 0700. The Bradleys, ours included, had many engagements, destroying vehicles and dismounts. There's no better drama than listening to the radio chatter during these chaotic moments. Our crew trying to identify targets, identifying them, and then the thump thump thump of the 25mm or the familiar sound of the coax machine gun." This is not an embedded reporter with CNN or Fox News; these are the words of Michael, an infantry soldier stationed in Iraq and the editor of the much-read "A Day In Iraq" blog.
Michael, who prefers to remain anonymous, reports almost daily and is one of the hundreds of active-duty, reserve, and guard soldiers writing first-person accounts of their experiences of war. Blogs are online journals, generally written, edited, and published by a single individual. They often feature brief but intense rhetoric about news events, observations, or other published articles. This incredibly simple form of self-publishing is one of the most revolutionary changes in journalism, and it has the potential to alter dramatically how Americans view the war in Iraq.
First coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, the term weblog has been shortened almost universally to blog. Those who write them are unceremoniously called bloggers, and the community of blog is called the blogosphere (you knew that was coming). Do not let the silly vernacular fool you -- this is not a discrete publishing phenomenon that is unique to the most arcane digerati. Blogging is most definitely mainstream. According to Fortune, there are more than eight million blogs in existence. Time listed bloggers in its 2004 "Person of the Year" edition. The big idea here is that single individuals, with no money, formal training, or editorial control, can publish their ideas, instantaneously, to millions of people throughout the world.
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Blogging, like all other forms of media and communication, has its pros and cons. Good blogs have the opportunity to provide real-time reporting and analysis from participants as well as observers. In many cases, these war blogs tell a more personal story, one that would not even be considered for publication by big media. Consider Michael's story about walking down the street in Iraq: "One beautiful little girl gave me sunflower seeds as all of the boys tried to keep her and two other girls in the background. I tried to forget about where these seeds came from or where they had been, tilted my head back and threw them all in my mouth at once. This elicited a roar of approval from the crowd of thirty or more kids surrounding me." Although simple, these diminutive vignettes tell an important part of the story in Iraq.
On the downside, this less-rigorous form of publishing is extraordinarily vulnerable to inaccuracies and bloggers with an agenda. Blogs also have the potential to undermine operational security and could be used for much more sinister purposes in the arena of psychological warfare (on both sides). As is good practice elsewhere, readers need to be careful of what they are ingesting when partaking at the blog buffet.
As you might have guessed, this as-it-happens reporting is not limited to blogs. The ubiquity of e-mail, digital cameras, and cell phones now almost guarantees participants -- and not just professional journalists -- will be the first to report breaking news. In March 2004, the photos of Saddam Hussein being pulled out of his hiding place first were broadcast on a commercial military Web site. Much to the dismay of the Pentagon, these photos were taken by soldiers and released without the permission of Defense Department public affairs. Similar incidents took place with the alleged prisoner abuse photos at Abu Ghraib Prison and the photos of Navy SEALs capturing Iraqi combatants.
Although blogs are not specifically banned by military commanders, military personnel are cautioned against releasing any information that could compromise national or operational security. "The bottom line is that the troops are citizens, too, and enjoy the same rights as other Americans, albeit with proper attention paid to the constraints associated with official service," said Pentagon spokesman Army Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable. You can bet the Defense Department is paying close attention: Army Specialist Colby Buzzell, author of the "My War" blog, recently was disciplined for an alleged security breach on his blog.
Blogs are neither inherently good nor bad, they simply represent the global democratization of information enabled by the Internet. Gone are the days when the military tightly managed the flow of news from the front. More and more, we are the reporters. If you are interested in becoming a blogger, go to blogger.com, spaces.msn.com, or movabletype.org.
© 2005 Christopher Michel. All opinions expressed in this article
are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
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Chris is President of Military Advantage, the nation's largest military and veteran membership organization. Through Military.com, the company connects over 4 million members to the lifelong benefits of military service and provides public and private sector clients efficient access to the military market. Members trust Military.com for career, education and financial services. Founded in 1999, Military Advantage has raised over $30 million from leading investors and strategic partners, including A&E Television Networks. In 2004, Military Advantage was acquired by Monster Worldwide (Nasdaq: MNST).
Prior to founding Military Advantage, Chris was a strategy consultant assisting companies in the airline, entertainment, and financial services industries.
Chris also served as a Naval Flight Officer in the United States Navy. While on active duty, Chris flew as a P-3 Navigator, Tactical Coordinator and Mission Commander in support of maritime interdiction operations in the Red Sea, NATO enforcement operations in the Adriatic, and counter-narcotics missions in Central America. Following his operational tour, Chris worked in the Pentagon as Aide to the Chief of the Naval Reserve.
An advocate for servicemembers and Veterans, Chris is a frequent speaker and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Financial Times, and others. He is also a regular guest on CNN and other national radio and TV programs. In addition, he writes the monthly "Charting your Course" column for U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine and is working on his first book to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2005. He is an elected Director of the U.S. Naval Institute, a Trustee of the U.S. Naval Institute Foundation and a past Director of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and the USS Arizona Memorial Fund.
Chris earned his commission from the NROTC program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was named a Distinguished Naval Graduate. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Chris
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