Русская версияPsychologists recommend that people use diaries to get through
rough spots in their lives.
Psychologists at Germany's military,
the Bundeswehr, are no different and tell soldiers to write down
their experiences. They just shouldn't do it online.
That doesn't seem to prevent soldiers from doing so. The Web site
milblogging.com alone currently has some 2,080 military blogs that
are written by soldiers from 38 countries. US soldiers are by far
the most prolific writers, but 42 German and five French soldiers
have also registered their diaries on the site.
Source of information
The American dominance isn't surprising, since blogging is much
more widespread in the US than in Europe. But military strategists
in the Old World are eyeing the development with concern.
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Even embedded journalists sometimes don't reveal as much as
soldiers
Next to regular war coverage by the media, military blogs in the US
have turned into a secondary source of information. Soldiers
sometimes reveal details that even officially "embedded"
journalists are not allowed to report on.
As a result, US military officials announced last year that they
would check texts, picture and videos that bloggers want to publish
and would ban Web sites such as Youtube in military bases.
The US army did so just one day before well-known blogger Colby
Buzzel received the Lulu Blooker Prize for his blog "My War:
Killing Time in Iraq." The highly praised diary, which talks about
death, destruction and a lot of boredom and has been translated
into seven languages shows how hard it is to stop soldiers from
sharing their stories.
A place to vent
Some soldiers post pictures online that show them posing with their
weapons. Even the most innocent description of a view from a window
can reveal military secrets, however. Some soldiers
enthusiastically write about their experiences, others, like
Buzzel, share their frustration and boredom.
"I'm just waiting for time to pass," writes one soldier, who is
based in Afghanistan. "Slowly, I've had enough."
Another wonders what his reception at home will be like.
"How many of us will be ignored by friends and family because we've
killed someone in cold blood on command?" he asks.
These are still exceptions in France. But the military leadership
desperately wants to put an end to the blogs.
French soldiers with blogs are meant to be more careful in the
future -- especially when it comes to revealing information about
equipment and their place of deployment. The new French army chief,
Elrick Irastorza, has issued a directive on this at the end of
July. The directive says that the publication of sensitive
information in blogs and Internet forums endangers military
operations, the life of soldiers in active duty and the lives of
their relatives at home.
Staying anonymous
In Germany, Bundeswehr officials said that it's hard and almost
impossible to control bloggers. So far, Germany has no rules on
blogging, but a German soldier is contractually bound to keep
military secrets to himself, said Christian Dienst, a Bundeswehr
spokesman.
But he also said that Bundeswehr leaders might consider further
steps should the blogging trend continue. The least bloggers could
do is not use their real names.
"Pseudonyms protect the bloggers and their relatives from terrorist
attacks, for example," Dienst said.
Morale gauge
The main problem of military blogs is that they can only convey
"subjective impressions of individual soldiers, which are
multiplied when they're published on the Internet," Dienst added.
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Achim Wohlgethan has written about the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan
"A molehill quickly turns into a mountain and the content of blogs
can quickly turn into a match-ball for domestic politics," Dienst
said, referring to "Final Stop Kabul," a blog by former German
soldier Achim Wohlgethan, who does not hold back his criticism of
the Bundeswehr's state of equipment in Afghanistan.
"Bloggers only have their personal views and often distribute
half-truths," Dienst said. A lack of knowledge about the larger
political picture could lead to the inadvertent publication of
sensitive information, which can play into the hands of terrorists,
he added.
But the blogs are also an important source of information for
Bundeswehr officials. They observe some of them quite closely to
gauge troop morale.
(Deutsche Welle)
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