Where Have the MilBlogs Gone?

Do you wonder where all the blogs went that were being written by the soldiers on the frontlines? I do, I’ve been tracking these blogs for close to a decade now and for information on what is happening on the front lines you are pretty much now resigned to the major media outlets or the Department of Defense official reports, and the few blogs that are out there are primarily being written by civilians or contractors.

So what happened to the wide spread use of social media by the troops? The best I can tell is that they either went dark or completely private, meaning the blog owner has to approve you to view their posts, because Big Army has put the hammer down on anything that doesn’t reflect highly on the mission or the commanders….

During my off the record interviews for this post I was told that soldiers are told that any time they talk to a reporter, they are free to give their opinion on anything, but that they should stay in their lane. Which basically means, don’t talk about something you don’t know anything about! Soldiers are regularly told that they can say whatever they want, as long as they make it clear it is their opinion, so if that is true, why can’t they write anything they want as long as it is their opinion?

Under the current rules highlighted in the SMR if a soldier posts on their Facebook page that they are not happy with the President’s policy on X they can be prosecuted under Article 88 of the UCMJ. Have a disagreement on Facebook or Twitter with a Senior NCO on policy and you can be counseled for violating the Social Media guidelines set forth in DTM 09-026. Get counseled one too many times and you can be separated from the Army under Article 600-235.