matt has a good post publicizing the silencing of daniel goetz, a soldier who blogged at all the king's horses.
all jobs are potentially incompatable with blogging, but miliblogging--especially blogs from soldiers in a war--occupy a particularly precarious position. on the one hand, their perspective and experience is really valuable in honestly assessing what is really going on. on the other hand, any truly honest assessment, one that involves a critical eye, will inevitably run into problems. soldiers do not have the same rights to free speech as the rest of us do.
so when i read about milibloggers who question the official line and get into trouble for it, part of me is not surprised at all. but goetz's last post is a little spooky. it comes across like a coerced confession. as i read it i can almost imagine a bad video image, eyes darting nervously side to side, as he recites what he has to say for the people just outside the picture frame.
one more point: in my various arguments around the blogisphere, i occasionally clash with a rightwinger who cites a conservative miliblogger in iraq to demonstrate "what the troops" want or believe. next time that comes up, it's worth noting that when milibloggers who raise questions about the bush administration's policies are silenced, the milibloggers who remain are not exactly a representative sample of what the members of the military think.
