The United States military has just decided to prohibit access to 13 social networking sites for all currently deployed personnel. These sites include Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and the like. So far, I’ve been unable to get the complete list of 13 banned sites. The military claims it’s an issue of bandwidth, namely, that with all the traffic the soldiers are generating with their emails, comments, pictures and videos, they are clogging the network and adversely affecting operational readiness and communication.

What a crock of shit. This is the United States military here, the best funded army in the history of our planet. An organization with numerous black projects that use up countless billions of dollars that no one sees or hears about, the military that created the fastest air-breathing aircraft of all time, inventors of the stealth bomber, laser weaponry, etc. Am I to believe that they can’t handle the bandwidth generated by their soldiers when other sites such as YouTube and Facebook can handle exponentially more traffic with ease?

So while the army themselves have taken to posting clips on YouTube in an effort to manage the ground story, the soldiers can no longer post their thoughts or any material they may have recorded. Indeed, prior to the military announcement about the banned sites, I saw a BBC article that stated not only were certain sites off-limits to soldiers but that all communication with those other than direct family could be screened by commanding officers. Apparently, a solider would have to get permission and clear the content of an email or letter with a superior officer prior to sending something as simple as an email to a friend. This isn’t verified and I can’t seem to find the article as a reference now, but it’s the sort of thing the US military would do isn’t it?

You’d have have your head so far up your ass you could see your gums to believe that this is an issue of bandwidth. Plain and simple, it’s an issue of media manipulation. As YouTube and other social sites emerge as the new medium of communication, the military has realized they are ill-equipped to fight a propaganda war in cyberspace. Instead of using their considerable resources to find a delicate, subtle solution that might convince people the war was going well they’ve made a right hash-up of the thing. There are so many people out there that sympathize with the army and have the skills necessary to do it right.

For starters, I think soldiers posting their own content gives a human face to the war that no polished ad agency can come up with. It’s an honest and human twist to the usual crap on Fox and CNN. True it may be sometimes brutal, harsh, unforgiving and there are times when misdeeds and embarrassments come to light (the Abu Ghraib incident) but for a war that is floundering, transparency is the order of the day. I think it would keep the soldier’s morale high too. The only concern should be operational security and whether or not tactical details are being exposed via the internet.

Yes, it’s true that foreign agents could camp out and read soldier’s blogs/posts and obtain seemingly valuable information from them. But assuming actual operation details aren’t divulged (and if you’re a halfway decent solider, you’d be an ass to give up that information), the foreign agents and enemy elements wouldn’t really get any information that isn’t readily available over the net. I mean the average hacker can get all the information he or she needs whether you divulge it or not. I really think it’s more a question of people who aren’t completely familiar with the ‘net making the decisions. Thus far, the rogue elements in Iraq are making better use of viral videos and the internet in general. How the hell is that possible? They are in a war-torn, societally challenged hell-hole of a country. Most have to struggle to get food, water and electricity. Ask yourself, how is it possible they are winning the cyberwar (how the flipping hell do they have this internet access)? Answer? It’s because they’re are not afraid to step out into the internet and make seemingly bold moves. Are they worried that their IP address will be traced and they’re safe-houses found out? Possibly, but it would seem the propaganda effect of their posts outweighs the chance they’ll be cyber-tracked down. The soldier’s blogs (or milblogs as they are called) was a start at getting the US military back into the propaganda game. I think they’ve just muzzled their best shot and winning the ‘net over. All it would take is a few smart, well spoken (and consequently articulate) bloggers in the army to turn this around.

There’s a pretty decent article on the subject over at Wired news, you can read it HERE.

I’d be especially interested in hearing from military personnel and how this affects them.

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