Bad Blood In The MilBlog Community

Calling Out the Blackfive Blog’s Extremist Rhetoric -- War is Boring

Two years ago in D.C., I had drinks with two founding members of Blackfive, a popular conservative military blog. Jim Hanson, who goes by the handle “Uncle Jimbo” at the blog , pitched me his idea for a private, Internet-based intelligence organization that would use young freelance writers as field agents. With their journalism credentials as cover, the writers would gather data for use by U.S. government agencies.

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My Comment: I read both blogs on a regular basis .... and I find them both informative and interesting. But talk about bad blood .... shesshhhh. Anyway .... read the comments on David Axe's post, and contribute if you have a valid and interesting point.

As to what is my take .... I have lost count on how many times I have read a blog post that I disagree with. This is normal .... especially when we cover military news as well as wars and conflicts that are strongly influenced by domestic politics. But so what .... that is what we do. Different viewpoints may have a point or two .... and deserve an audience for people to read about. For example, I almost always disagree with American Generalist's political views .... but his post are always well written, informative, and yes .... he does change my viewpoint once in a while .... and yes .... I post him all the time.

Black-Five can be found here.

War Is Boring can be found here.

Update: Michael Yon gets his licks into Blackfive.

Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog

A squad of soldiers work in a computer lab at an NCO Academy Warrior Leaders Course. The Army is migrating all of its Windows-based computers to Microsoft's Vista operating system to bolster Internet security and standardize its information systems by Dec. 31. Photo credit Christian Marquardt (Joint Multinational Training Command)

From The New York Times:

Over the course of 10 months in eastern Afghanistan, an Army specialist nicknamed Mud Puppy maintained a blog irreverently chronicling life at the front, from the terror of roadside bombs to the tyrannies of master sergeants.

Often funny and always profane, the blog, Embrace the Suck (military slang for making the best of a bad situation), flies under the Army’s radar. Not officially approved, it is hidden behind a password-protected wall because the reservist does not want his superiors censoring it.

“Some officer would be reviewing all my writing,” the 31-year-old soldier, who insisted that his name not be used, said in an e-mail message. “And sooner or later he would find something to nail me with.”

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My Comment: The military cannot control this flow of information .... they can try .... but they will not be successful. The only way they can be successful is by cutting internet connections completely. But the drop in morale .... both at home and at the war zone .... will result in a firestorm of protest that no commander (or politician) will be willing to face.