A Fellow Blogger, Silenced

Good story this morning about a young soldier in Iraq who set up an blog to keep the folks back home up to speed on how things were going for him. From the story, one gets the impression of a smart, dedicated, patriotic young man who had an obvious talent for writing. Short bits of the blog are contained in the article, and I must admit to thinking that this would have been a blog that got my attention.

That said, I am not a fan of open blogging by active duty military people. The military is there to protect free speech, not practice it. We take oaths, we take orders, we do our best to carry out all the lawful ones and we resist the unlawful ones. It is a dirty, grinding, often obtuse world into which very few civilians have the perspective necessary for sustained viewing. Irrespective of how truthful and entertaining 1st Lt. Gallagher was, his blog created a window just big enough into an often chaotic world for misconception and mis-perception to thrive.

I waited until I retired to unburden myself of these thoughts publicly. I'd prefer today's military do the same.