[mustangdriver]

I agree. Civilian deaths are a very unfortunate part of war. But they want to make it out like our troops are doing it on purpose. Just not that long ago 60 minutes did a story on the Marine that killed those civilains in a house. They said "Oh how could you do that?" There was machine gun and RPG fire coming from that house, and his Hummvee was just destroyed by fire from that house. How many civilian deaths took place on 9/11?

[STARMAN 352ND]

Many unfortunate things happen during a war and it seems like the press is out to make our men look bad ... The press don't know from a good story to a bad story when there over there...
Now back to YouTube or My Space it is a nice thing to have for our service men because it lets them get in touch with their loved ones and also makes them feel closer to home.
I'm thinking some of these guys will start getting homesick if they take it away like that....Not sure how many of them have there own personal laptops to be able to go to the sites.
But as of now that seems to be the only way they will be able to log on to those sites.

[djjeffhall]

Hey guys,
It just sounds to me like the government/military is trying to keep folks at home from hearing how badly our troopswant out of where they are right now.

I don't buy the bandwidth argument. We spend a ton of money per day, we can afford a little more bandwidth. The bandwidth exists and the morale that being connected offers far out weights anything else. (I manage a dot com and while I'm not an IT expert, I've got a pretty decent idea of what can and cannot be accomplished.)

Considering how unpopular this war has become, keeping up the morale of the men on the ground should be absolute priortoy number one. If you want to convince me we should stay in Iraq, then have the troops convince me they are happy to stay.

Right now, I'm not getting the impression that our troops believe they are assigned a job worth doing. If they are not convince we should be there, how can I be convinced? I have the upmost faith in what the US and British troops are capable of and if they say that we belong in Iraq via their webcast from Iraq, then I believe it. Mask what they really think, and I'm lead to believe we need out.

I might be naive, but I think the people who are actually in Baghdad right now are going to be the best arbiter of that assessment. Censoring the troops is not the answer.

(I apologize if I'm coming off harsh and seemingly intolerant of anyones views but I'm a firm believer in the 1st amendment and I believe that any censorship is against American values.)

[STARMAN 352ND]

What you just said is a little true....Because a good friend of mine son is over there doing his 3rd tour...Yep you heard it right 3rd tour
and he is not a very happy camper right now i will tell you that much.
I feel for the ground troops over there but pilots like my bro in the fighters...Well let's just put it this way it's a whole different situation.
I just can't wait for this war to get over with to tell ya the truth.
JP

[mustangdriver]

I am not a republican or democrat but rather a littl eof both. I think that both sides have some good ideas and both sides have bad ideas. I can't tell you if I am for the war or against it. I am kind of numb to it at this point. I think we either need to fight to win and get out(take this P.C. way to fight a war out the door), or we should just come home now.

[Gort]

Originally Posted by STARMAN 352ND

I just can't wait for this war to get over with to tell ya the truth.JP

Originally Posted by mustangdriver

I think we either need to fight to win and get out(take this P.C. way to fight a war out the door), or we should just come home now.

I agree 100% with you two. Either win the war or shove off. I’d be delighted if we could pull out TODAY and bring our boys (and girls) home. But unlike Vietnam, this Pandora’s Box will land right on our doorstep if we don’t kick butt and “win” (and how the heck we do that is anybody’s guess).

Believe me, I want us out of that hell hole yesterday. And if I were president, I’d seriously consider turning Iraq’s benighted desert into bubbly glass. But thanks to the powers that be, we’re up to our eyeballs in this mess; and short of turning tail and skedaddling home, we’re stuck with it.

[bsmith13]

We are all entitled to our opinions, and there are a ton of them out there.

It's up to you whether you believe that a bandwidth problem exists in the military. I've seen the traffic reports on just our local server; the load is insane.

I agree that CNN etc are a useful source of "open" information to our enemies, possibly more useful than things posted by service members. But honestly, news programs aside, how would you feel knowing that something you carelessly posted on myspace gave an advantage to the enemy that allowed him to kill some of your comrades?

It might be demoralizing to have your computer communication abilities eliminated, but we as service members have been through worse. There's still always letter writing.

[Shawn 507]

Its the job of the media to report things, not the individual soldier. And considering how one mis-spoken word or phrase can be twisted by anyone, is this really a bad thing? Joe doesn't need access to those sites. While we may have a smarter generation of soldiers, they are still dumb to the real world and how to live in it.
As an Instructor for freshly minted Infantry Lts, I can tell you stories of how these jokers are putting their carrers on the line with some of the blogs and pics they post. And they haven't even left Ft. Benning. What the world and apparently some service members have forgotten is, you loose some rights while serving so as to protect them for others.
Think back to a story that got way out of hand because someone of lesser authority spoke as If they were in charge. Soldiers have better things to do, and don't get enough "how to deal with the media" classes to think before speaking. With noone to watch over them online, god knows what can get out. Go on myspace and do a search for military servicemembers. You may be suprised at what you see. And its embarrassing, to see it. So much for not bringing shame, dishonor to ones unit/organization.
- Shawn

[Cruver Collecter]

Shoot the military has been limiting the use of government computers for years. I have been retired for four years now and when I was active duty work computers were for official use only. Does not sound like anything new to me. I can not remember how many briefings they had regarding what were appropriate uses for searches on the internet.

[Rush104]

While I agree that censorship is un-American, I fully agree with placing these sites off-limits to the military. When you VOLUNTEER to join the military, you AGREE to give up certain things that the rest of the population can enjoy.
You never know when info can be used against a person. Look at Col. Robinson Risner. He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine for leading F-105 strikes against the VC during the war. Later on, when he got shot down and taken prisoner, the Vietnamese interrogators had a copy of that magazine with them while they tortured him.
The youtube ban is in the best interests of OPSEC. I would hate to read of some future POW being tortured by his captors, with them using info against him that they found on youtube or some other site...