Fri 27 Aug 2004
Sad to say, but My War - Fear And Loathing In Iraq has been officially killed. I’m not sure if CB did this on his own or if it was done for him, or if it was highly “suggested” that he do this. His last post is a sad one, entitled “Ever Get The Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?”. He had recently changed the name to My War, removing the “Fear & Loathing” part, but now he finally changed the name of his blog to “Over And Out”. Also, comments were disabled.
Was he compromising operational security by his blogging? Was he endangering the mission? Were the comments too much for people to handle? Was CB getting too much hate mail? I don’t know. I seems to me as if the powers-that-be shut him down, as they have other military bloggers. But I am sad to see him go, and am little reflexively angry at the military, if indeed they killed his blog. If he gets published some time in the future, I guess we’ll find out what happened.
Don’t get me wrong: I understand about maintaining operational security, and I am all for that. Lives are at stake. Many times there is a good reason for censuring this information, especially when the enemy can see it as well. I’m not sure what the military saw in CB’s blog that was a potential compromise, but I’m sure they have good reasons. CB’s battalion commander sounds like a pretty decent guy, but there are obviously other concerns.
Bye for now, CB! I really enjoyed your blog!
August 27th, 2004 at 3:42 am
Somebody drove a stake through it’s heart.
Someone drove a spike through Colby Buzzel’s My War blog. Instructive to see if it was voluntary, directed, or ’suggested.’ I guess we’ll know if blogs start going dark all over the deployed force, or by service, or unit. If…
August 27th, 2004 at 5:40 am
War Zone Blogger Crackdown?
Blogs of War was the first place I saw a mention of a possible crackdown by the military on bloggers in combat area. John Donovan mentions the same NPR piece. They both discuss My War. Other blogging: MilBlogs An Army…
January 14th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Generally speaking the military theatre of a war zone would not be a place to allow blogs. Assuming any of these blogs is for real. In terms of liars , over 60% of people are habitual ones. In the arena of war veterans , census data have shown over 80% of Americans lie as to having served in a combat zone.Assuming one or more actual soldiers posts a blog to the internet, one persons opinion is not exactly a concensus regarding anything being as the sample rate for people in that particular war zone is less than 1/000th of a percant per opinion. That’s assuming all such blogs are real, and stats show 80% are liars. So 1/1000th of a percent of 20%. That’s insignificant whether I agree or not.