Department Of Defense Blocks Soldier Access To Myspace, YouTube And Other Sites
“THEY’RE TRYING TO HIDE HOW BAD THINGS ARE IN IRAQ,” is what the doofus leftards have to say about it (as if the media’s all-negative-all-the-time coverage of Iraq doesn’t bring us enough negative news as is), but in reality I think this helps the anti-war cause more then it hurts it by impeding the ability of the soldiers to tell their stories from the battlefield.
Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a U.S. Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.
The Defense Department will begin blocking access world-wide to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.
The policy is being implemented to protect information and improve security, as well as reduce drag on the department’s networks. “This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” Gen. Bell said in the memo.
The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.
Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks—but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the soldiers talk about Iraq it’s usually not all doom and gloom unlike what we get from them media. By cutting off these soldiers’ ability to communicate the DoD is essentially silencing their best advocates.
Operational security is important, no doubt, but we’ve been in Iraq for 4+ years and YouTube/Myspace haven’t been a problem. Why do this now?
