We may be seeing an end to blogs from our soldiers on the front lines. The Army has recently released a directive ordering soldiers to stop posting to online media without prior approval from a superior officer. That essentially means an attempt to end military blogs from those who are actually in the hot zones. The fallout on this order is already very loud and very public. And it will only get louder and more public as the effects begin to be seen.

The primary concern for operational security is obviously an important one. The safety of our troops and their movements must be of paramount importance to everyone who reports on the military. Reporters, television crews, bloggers, journalists anyone who publishes information about our armed forces must have security in the front of their mind. That is, I hope, common sense. You don’t go telling the world how many men we have stationed at a certain base. You don’t tell them when the next convoy will be heading out and you don’t tell them anything about our strategy. While we might like to believe that our enemies are stupid, they are not. They have learned that our media can be a great source of information. So the Army is right to want to shut off one source of intelligence.

However, the Army may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater on this one. Our military blogs have bean an incredible source of good news about the war. There are countless blogs published by service members in Iraq that are telling of our successes. While our mainstream media may dwell on the negative, that can be countered by a well written blog from a solider who has seen something good, who has seen progress being made. Sometimes, those blogs are the only times we hear anything positive about the war. Are they all positive? Of course not, but they are sharing important and enlightening and often ignored stories of the war from those who are there.

The Army might want to rethink this one. If we cut off the voices of our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen, we will truly be left with nothing by the endless rhetoric and disconnected rambles of the politicians and news reporters. The voices of those who are actually in the fight need to be heard. Maybe it won’t al be good news, but it will be real.