Army Blogger's Tales Attract Censors' Eyes

Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/9/04 | CHRISTOPHER COOPER

[Valin]

Army specialist Colby Buzzell figured he'd cap his yearlong deployment to Iraq by mustering out of the service this winter and easing into a new career. "I was thinking about maybe driving a cab," he says.

But that was before he launched My War, an Internet-based chronicle of his life as an infantry soldier in Mosul, where he mans a gun in a Stryker brigade. Written under the nom de guerre of CBFTW (Colby Buzzell F -- This War), the blog is a mixture of gripping accounts of caffeine-driven battle maneuvers and amusing vignettes from the dusty grind of life in Iraq's third-largest city.

CBFTW's writings are a hit in the blogosphere, with his Web page logging 10,000 hits on a recent day.

But Spc. Buzzell's writing aspirations may prove his undoing as a professional soldier. Recently, shortly after his commanders discovered My War on the Web, Spc. Buzzell found himself banned from patrols and confined to base. His commanders say Spc. Buzzell may have breached operational security with his writings. "My War" went idle as he pondered the consequences of pursuing his craft while slogging through five nights of radio guard duty, a listless detail for an infantryman. More recently, the pages again went blank, as he chafed under a prepublication vetting regime imposed by his command.

Army Spc. Colby Buzzell, a.k.a. CBFTW on his Web log, flew under military radar -- until recently.

Such prepublication censorship is rare in the modern military: Soldiers' missives haven't been routinely expurgated since World War II and the days of "Loose Lips Sink Ships." The Pentagon doesn't prescreen soldiers' communications, whether print or electronic, assigning the job of policing soldier-journalists to commanders in the field.

(snip)

[xzins]

, shortly after his commanders discovered My War on the Web, Spc. Buzzell found himself banned from patrols and confined to base. His commanders say Spc. Buzzell may have breached operational security with his writings.

For 2 reasons this is exactly the right thing to do.

1. Terrorism looks for high value targets so their attacks have broader psychological damage than just the actual physical damage caused. Now that Buzzell and his unit are famous, it makes them higher value targets....especially him. To protect him, he had to be grounded.

2. The right to censor someone who is always on classified, secure missions is a power the military must have. Operational security will save lives or lose them when its tenets are violated. UNCONSCIOUSLY, Buzzell is providing background about himself, his area, his unit, his lifestyle, his everything. It makes himself and his unit easier targets.

[walford]

I agree. When you're in the military, you simply don't enjoy the same Constitutional rights as a civvie. Sorry. The mission -- and the troops -- come first.

[xzins]

I'm glad for the kid's blogging success. I'm glad we got a glimpse into how the troops in Iraq live.

But operational security is the right thing.

You are correct -- mission and troops first.