In the January 2007 (Vol. 91 No.1) of the Marine Corps Gazette, there is an article entitled The Privatatization of Victory, written by Sgt. Roger Huffstetler, Jr. It is subtitled “A corporal can destroy all that a battalion creates. The thinking and writing is of a high level. I bet it is better than John Carry can do.
It deals with individual Marines blogging.
“In the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, some servicemembers have set up personal web logs to comment daily on the progress of the war. In one of them says, ‘I don’t have body armor,’ this might be intrepreted as ‘no soldiers have body armor.’ Thus some servicemembers have the ability to jump the media and more importantly, their chain of command to comment on national defence policy. This concept is called a strategic corporal - a servicemember at the bottom of the Marine Corps who is forced to serve as an ambassador for the entire Marine Corps or even all Americans. This principle gives undue influence and responsibility to those at the bottom. The problem is that this principle is not in good keeping with military discipline and thus allows certain servicemembers, via the Internet or a Cable News Network reporter, to seem more important than their fellow servicemembers. In addition, it makes the actions of a few represent the actions of everyone.” (Page 19)
We all realize what a potential danger “loose lips” can be in feeding careless pieces of information to the world. Exhibit A is Geraldo Rivera in Iraq tracing an operations plan in the dust for the camera, that basically outlined the future movements of tactical units. Why he still has a job is a mystery to me, he has a long history of being a jackass.
And yet the Corps and Military has a need to get the real information out. It’s self evident that secular progressives, barking moonbats and mental liberals control the media. From the very beginning they have been banging the drum of we are failing in Iraq. Not because we are failing in Iraq, far from it, but because they hate George W Bush and long to cause him to fail. They long to reverse everything he has done. Everything is George W Bush’s fault, in cluding the UFO sightings recently reported.
With this constant trumpeting of lies, the Corps needs to get the truth out. In this the Corps has Public Affairs types who’s impossible job it to get real news reported by the press. Yea I know, it’s like trying to push a string. I am not sure it can be done. But they do try.
The majority of Americans support the troops. The majority of Americans long for the trooper stories. Michelle Malkin has just come back from Iraq, and she is encouraged by the soldiers and Marines and what she saw. She found it to have no connection to what we see on tv and read in papers (Fox News excepted) Her blog is here: http://michellemalkin.com/index.htm
But even though Michelle reports on her blog and on Fox News, she is a comparatively small voice crying out in the wilderness.
There are many mil blogs who do not compromise military security. There are many American hungry for the stories of our boys and girls on the ground in Iraq and the ’stan.
Initially I though that this article was going to be a negative … do NOT blog .. you dummies kind of article. I was wrong.
Since the Internet et al are not going away, here are the ideas that Sgt Huffstetler proposes for consideration:
“* From the day they reach boot camp until the day they again become civilians, all Marines should receive two types of training to augment their basic warrior training - cultural training in a regional context and strategic communications training. It would not be hard to envision each squad in boot camp assigned to a different region (on a rotating basis) with one Marine serving as the squad’s translator (squad to environment) and another as the squad’s communicator (squad to homeland).
* The Marine Corps should coordinate and solicit, perhaps through it’s public affairs officers, stories from junior Marines reflecting operations on the ground. When Marines understand that part of their job is to stop terrorism is to outmaneuver their enemy in the court of public opinion, they will happily contribute with stories to their hometown papers.”
Just a though here but we gotta stop putting major emphasis on hometown papers, staffed with those who hate the military. These days there are a number of blogs who set the agenda for the media, look at Drudge, Malkin, Blackfive and more. I believe those public affairs officers should be required to run a number of blogs to get this job done. Anyone who hasn’t read Major B’s blog is missing out on a lot http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/ He is home from Iraq now but his stories from there still uplift and encourage.
Sgt Huffstetler continues;
“A media savvy, culturally attuned lance corporal must be the rule, not the exception. Former Commandant Gen Michael W. Hagee USMC(Ret) has commented on the importance of the individual Marine within the broader context of war.
‘We can talk about aircraft. We can talk about howitzers. We can talk about tanks, but the individual Marine is the most important part of the Marine Corps’.”
When I was a pup, I don’t remember articles making it to the Marine Corps Gazette written by enlisted folks. That was a mistake I am glad has been fixed. This Sgt is really on the ball.
