SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!

When Heretic and I got busted for this blog while we were in Iraq, they said the same shit then as what they're saying now to justify ending the war blog culture....

That it is a breach of operational security, that it only helps the enemy by lending encouragement, that it paints the picture that troop morale is low.

Same old shit as in any imperial war. Keep military adventures as far away from the plebeians as possible.

Unlike other war bloggers, we came out very fortunate. Our chain of command's threats of court-marshal proved to be futile. As was later confirmed by Military Intelligence and C.I.D., not once did we ever technically break OPSEC.

However, after much brow-beating and ass-chewings, we were told that we were not allowed to harbor opinions negitave of the war, the government, and especially the president.

In short, we were told to stop writing. Our voice, the soldier's voice, was put under by a makeshift gag order. Overnight we became silenced and censored.

As far as why they choose to silence the soldier's voice, it seems pretty clear to me. With elections starting to heat up, this one party government doesn't want the voting public to think that a rising tide of pissed off soldiers exists.

If every blogger was actually enjoying him/herself in Iraq, and letting the world know how great we're doing over there, perhaps this wouldn't be an issue.

But what the military hates more than anything in the world is a soldier that thinks for him/herself and makes his/her voice heard, especially when that voice is telling the truth.

It was an average soldier who blew the whistle on the tortures and inhumanity at Abu Gharib.

It was an average soldier who pointed his finger right back at Rumsfeld and asked, "When will we get armor for our trucks?!"

It was a group of average soldiers who refused a suicide mission to deliver tainted fuel into a combat zone with no crew-served weapons or ammunition to defend themselves with, and no armor to protect them whatsoever.

It was an average soldier who publicly interrupted his Colonel saying, "No sir, America is not at war. Its soldiers are at war. America is at the mall!"

To assume that a soldier will blindly follow along in the wake of criminality of an illegal and bloody occupation does not give enough credit to the conscious of the human mind.

To think that silencing a soldier's voice to hide the truth will help us win this war is absolutely ludicrous!

This is about PR spin. Its about convincing America that nothing is wrong. Bush's dumb-ass is still trying to convince us that his "brilliant" troop surge will work, even though it was nothing more than smoke and mirrors to begin with.

"Jest hold on der, Amurica. You's aul wait en see. This here troop seeerge is gar-aun-teeed! Ain't no sense in fussin' and fightin'. God'll see us through this! Amurica complains too damn much, can't see the bigger picture. We have no choice but to win in Iraq. Duncha know? Terrurist wanna kill us cuz they hate our freedumb!!"

As if Bush had any credibility left, imagine what a sudden increase in antiwar blogs will do to him. I can see why he's nervous. Had he actually ever been in a war, ever really been in the military, he'd know that some veterans are fucking crazy, pissed off and know how to shoot a gun. If I were responsible for starting an endless war, I'd be scared, too.

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I am incredibly dismayed with this sudden turn of events. Blogging was the only thing that kept me going in Iraq. I felt then, as I do now, that the American public deserves to know the truth about what's going on.

Further, if this new policy stretches into prohibiting emails as well, try explaining that to a soldier's wife, or husband, or parents, or children. We live in modern times, and as such this government needs to come to terms that the military family community depends on emails for instant reports from their loved ones.

I feel really bad for soldiers in Iraq right now. How much are we willing to isolate them, especially when most soldiers think Americans, despite their stupid yellow ribbons of "support", really don't give a fuck about what's going on outside of their pretentious lives anyways?

To the soldiers in Iraq, I can only hope that they don't let these very Anti-democratic assholes silence their voice. They are still citizens of this country. Each and every one of them has a mind of her/his own. What good is the 1st Amendment that they are fighting and dying for if they can't even use it themselves?

This government can't hide the truth forever. The blood and gore, so conveniently disguised and filtered through biased media, is still on our hands regardless how much we try to forget about it.

The Pentagon may like to think that its problems are solved by silencing the soldier's voice, but its not. It only serves as aggravation to an already bigger problem. Every soldier has a story to tell. And when the soldier returns home from this disgusting war, that is when we as a country will all be forced to listen. Whether we like it or not.


posted by Heckle