THEIR WORDS

not mine or a reporters
OR a king and his entire court who doesn't/don't know OR care jack shite about the troops

Troop blogs show increasing criticism of war

By Robert Weller - The Associated Press
DENVER — With the world being bombarded by all factions on their side on the war in Iraq, U.S. soldiers Internet blogs provided the kind of public relations Madison Avenue would drool over.
Soldiers told of helping Iraqi families, the loss of friends and their dangerous daily missions.
In the past year, as soldiers and Marines return for the second, third or even fourth deployments, and the death toll approaches 4,000, some soldiers began questioning the war.
At the very least they risk administrative punishments, called Article 15s, though if it has happened it has been kept quiet.
“The toothpaste is out of the tube. And, try as they might, the military’s information nannies are not going to be able to stuff it back in,” said Noah Schatman of Wired Magazine in an e-mail from Taji, Iraq. He said soldiers will pay $55 a month for a private connection.......

...........Sgt. Thomas Strickland, 27, of Douglasville, Ga., calling himself the Rev Wayfarer, was one of the earliest to speak out publicly. Two days before he drowned in a vehicle accident at Mahmudijah on his second tour he condemned the leadership in “One Foot in the Grave.” He asked what the chain of command had been doing since his first tour. “We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we are being pinned down in our own (expletive deleted) homes. Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will.”
Spc. Eleonai Israel of Bowling Green, Ky., court-martialed and given a less than honorable discharge last month after refusing to go on combat missions, said that like Horton he never heard a peep about what he said on his MySpace site during his year in Iraq...............

in their own words

which of course we may not be able to hear and read any longer

ah, but we won't let that happen will we? our soldiers have voices and they should NEVER be silenced

we all know they are NOT worried about troops giving away 'sensitive information'. they are indeed worried about the troops feelings about the fiasco that is iraq


Tighter restrictions on military blogs anger US soldiers· Ban aimed at curbing critics of Bush, say troops· Pentagon moves to stop spread of intelligence

Ewen MacAskill in Washington

US troops in Iraq have reacted angrily to Pentagon restrictions aimed at curbing internet postings from war zones.
The Pentagon cited the risk of providing sensitive information to insurgents. Blogs and emails from troops in the field can often be extraordinarily vivid and indiscreet. One last weekend from a soldier in Iraq advised a trooper in the US who was about to deploy in Iraq on ways to watch for and detect explosive devices planted by insurgents.


The Pentagon said blogs had to be cleared first with officers, and that soldiers would be punished if they publicly revealed troop movements, planned raids, travel itineraries, photographs of casualties, new technology or material that could compromise their location.
Reacting to the ban, soldiers said the real reason for the curbs were their negative comments about the war, including scepticism about George Bush's claims about progress. Soldiers in the field and former soldiers, in blogs posted on sites such as Black Five, an unofficial site run by former paratrooper Matthew Burden, said the regulations would be inoperable with most troops obeying the rules but dissidents finding ways round the ban..........

White House Weighs in on Milblog Flap

In a press conference this afternoon, White House spokesman Tony Snow called our story about the Army's new information regulations "overreported." But then, immediately afterwards, Snow said he wasn't sure he knew what he was talking about. Here's the exchange, with the Washington Times' Jon Ward:........