Thought-Provoking New York Times article on military members blogging and using social networks

Should our military members be allowed to use social networking like Facebook and MySpace? Should they be allowed to blog? This is an interesting conundrum for the military. Fascinating New York Times article.

This was posted on Facebook by the DAV but for those who don't subscribe there I'm passing it along. Years ago when I was a military wife, I wrote a column in a German newspaper. I did submit the columns to an army public affairs officer for review before publication, but I didn't realize until sometime after I started that my columns were making it into the briefing books of the main army Europe command. No one ever tried to stop me, though I also never wrote anything detrimental to the army, the US, or OPSEC (for you civilians, that's Operation Security, referring to the need to keep sensitive information about military operations close-hold, not that I had any knowledge of anything OPSEC sensitive in the first place). I know people who are currently serving our country who use social networking and blog on them, and I wonder how they will be affected. I, for one, WANT to be able to read what the troops have to say.

The issue of freedom of speech is complicated when it comes to the military, who often give up some of the freedoms they fight for.

BTW, I believe the blog mentioned in the beginning of this article is by invitation only and not for the general internet public. If that's not correct, I apologize.

Some military bloggers do cloak their identities, as do some civilian bloggers.