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By streiff Posted in Technology — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I was invited by John Noonan of Op-For to liveblog the Milbloggers conference in Arlington. I say "invited" because John is just too nice a guy for me to say "shanghaied", "dragooned", "guilted".

Quite a crowd. Haven't gotten around much because I just got here. Usually my Saturday doesn't consist of hitting the road before 7am and then playing a version of Where's Waldo to find a parking space.

Anyway. George Bush gave the opening remarks via video. Quite a testimory to the fact that we are no longer poorly medicated sociopaths in our pajamas but a real part of the conversation.

Now Admiral Mark Fox from MNF-I is answering questions.

If you guys have questions chime in and I'll see if I can get them answered.

Updates are below the fold

[UPDATE]

First panel is up. The moderator is Matt from BlackFive and the panelists are Bill Ardolino of INDC Journal, Bill Roggio of Fourth Rail (Bill gave tons of advice and recommendations to Jeff and Victoria for their trip, Bill tells me that the word is that Jeff did a superlative job over there, please make Bill's blog one of your must-reads, Jim of SGT Hook, and Sean of Doc in the Box.

The topic is "From the Front."

First up is Sean. He has three tours in Iraq as a medic.

SGT Hook talked about working with Soldier's Angels to send shoes to Afghan kids. A 40-foot shipping container arrived.

Consensus is that the military is making major strides in making internet and cellphone access available. SGT Hook says that on his first tour to Afghanistan internet access was available in short bursts on military computers. Now troops can subscribe to internet access from their hooches. They can buy cellphone chips to let them make calls from Iraq.

Bill Roggio says he has never had trouble getting internet access on any of his embeds. The panel concurred.

"Why," asked Matt, "if troops in the field are saying we're winning in al Anbar, and the milbloggers say we're winning, and Admiral Fox says we're winning, do the media keep reporting al Anbar can't be won?"

Consensus is that the media, for whatever reason, is a lagging indicator of what is happening.

Bill Roggio says he's been watching the transformation in al Anbar for over a year. He says the tide turned in September but it is still underreported.

The sheik leading the "Awakening" movement is pro-American and is trying to bring Shi'a as well as Sunni into his movement. This is a success story but the media template is not to talk about success.

Bill Ardolino tells an anecdote of a freelance Euro journalist who tried to get European papers to let him go to Iraq but couldn't get anyone interest.

Bill Roggio says one of the problems in getting MSM journalists interested is that there is a good chance nothing will happen on their embed. As Bill says, "nothing happens a lot in Iraq." He says he blogs his missions where nothing happens (so far in his tours with Marines (4 embeds) in al-Anbar nothing has happened on any of his patrols) but editors don't pay reporters to write about "nothing happened."

Matt observes that the Marines really understand public affairs and are very helpful to the embeds but he says "the Army not so much." Last week's brouhaha over AR 530-1 shows this is true. Army PAOs can be real roadblocks while Marine PAOs ten to help.

Getting ready for questions.

Bill Ardolino fields a question on troop morale. He says there are some cynics in every unit and "somehow the media seems to interview these same three guys over and over." Matt observes, "if you are a soldier an aren't complaining you are probably dead."

Bill Roggio says he's encountered a lot of soldiers and marines who disagree with why we went to Iraq but their morale to do their mission and their interactions with Iraqi civilians and troops is great. The two things are separate.

SGT Hook notes, rightfully, that morale at the micro level ebbs and flows, morale is lower in garrison locations than in the field, but the critical measure is retention. Retention remains high.

Bill Roggio notes that there is a real tension between fobbits and guys running missions but it doesn't affect the willingness to run missions and do the job.

Everyone says cell phone and internet access are huge morale boosters. Being able to talk to your family and friends whenever you wish makes the combat tour much easier.

Q. What personal constraints do you put on your own blogging.

Sean says he never blogs about people who are killed or wounded. He doesn't talk about specific operational items.

Bill Roggio says it is easy to blog and follow the rules. He says the hardest part is that you aren't allowed, as an embed, to report on Special Forces activities "which you see going on around you all the time so it is hard".

Matt says a BlackFive correspondent is in a SF unit operating someplace which I'm not going to announce on the internet and he hopes to have a story on that soon.

Q. For Bill Roggio, are you going to embed again?

Haven't made a decision on returning. He's going to make the decision in September. Would like to go to Baghdad ("the war will be won or lost in Baghdad") but Diyala is shaping up to be an major operation.

Q. Is it realistic to think milblogs can counteract strategic propaganda by the media?

Ardolino says it will be hard because the media are bigger and the media ignore milblogs.

SGT Hook agrees it is frustrating but we have to keep trying to get the word out. "I write to tell the story of the soldier to people who don't understand."

Ardolino says that media is totally misrepresenting the relationship between American troops and the Iraqi people. Iraqis actually see Americans as honest brokers an wanted people will give themselves up to Americans or their neighbors will give them up because they believe they will get a fair shake from Americans.

Q. We have a rant going from on Michael Fumento on how the chief of the military PA operation in Afghanistan and Air Force captain has his "head up his butt."

Anne Marie Cox, formerly Wonkette, had a question which surprisingly didn't involve anal sex. Naturally, it was painting milbloggers are right wingers. Matt noted that he got an email from Ted Kennedy's office supporting the milblogs in the Army OPSEC controversy.

Panel 2 All in the Family

Moderator is Andi of Andi's World

Panelists are Rachelle of ArmyWifeToddlerMom, Sarah of Trying to Grok, Becky of Military Families Voices of Victory, and Carla of Some Soldier's Mom.

Interesting POVs. I've been deployed. A lot. Of the 25 months I commanded a rifle company I was deployed for well over half that time, much of it "no notice" fly aways. It is obvious that a lot of the way the military takes care of families is broken. A real sore point is finding out about tour extensions and casualties from media reports before they get official word. Rachelle found out her husband's unit had been extended via radio news.

There is a lot of dissatisfaction with how wounded soldiers are cared for especially those who are suffering from PTSD. The feeling is that the military services just aren't culturally equipped to handled psychological casualties.

Becky, who has 3 kids (two soldiers and a Marine) in the service, who remarked on the hateful email she gets from people wishing her kids were dead. Carla spoke of a Euro reporter who left her a link to a site of photos of dead Iraqis with the note "here's what your hero son is doing."

There is an unplanned appearance by Robert Stokely, a Gold Star father. He talked about his feeling of loss when his son was killed in Iraq and how much discovering the milblog community has met to him in dealing with that loss.

If you aren't here this is going to sound hokie but Stokely said his son (6'2", 200 lbs at death) was born a preemie. He produced a diaper (unused, he said) bought for his son. It is about as big as your shirt pocket.

He said "I'm asked all the time if Iraq is worth it. I say you have to asked the little boy who grew into a man and died there if it was worth it."

Guys, if there was a dry eye in the house I didn't see it.

Anyway, as I was digressing earlier, I guess it never really registered on me while I was out being Peter Pan and playing with all the cool toys and getting involved in a lot of things an adult man should not be involved in (clubbing and barbecuing an armadillo, for instance) the stress on the families we left at home.

[Insert here one of the best conference lunches I've ever experience made even more delicious by being free]

Rapid Fire Roundtable

Moderator: John of Castle Argghhhh!

Panelists: Noah Shachtman of Wired (broke the AR 530-1 story last week), Lex of Neptunus Lex (read his "Tales of the Sea Service" section for some of the best writing on the web or anywhere), Murdoc of Murdoc Online, CPT Anthony Deiss of CENTCOM Public Affairs, Eagle1 of Eagle Speak (THE source for info on maritime security) and Slab of Op-For.

John tosses out the blog/MSM dichotomy and the OPSEC reg controversy.

Noah leads off. He says there is a "myth" that reporters are disloyal or a "fifth column" and he believes it is incorrect.

News stories have a bias towards violence, dramatic, and conflict. The bias is not one against the war, but towards conflict and controversy. He also says it is a myth that reporters aren't taking risks. There is also a bias towards not believing government officials. He says to reporters the military culture seems "very weird and Southern."

A spokesman for Gathering of Eagles challenged Noah. At the White House correspondents dinner he did an experiment to see how many of the attendees could identify photos of Cindy Sheehan and Paul Ray Smith and tell why they were notable. Only one could do it. Brett Baer.

In short, I think Noah is simply wrong on this.

Lex points out that increased visibility can cut against active military bloggers because people, read Congress, may read your blog and your boss would rather they don't.

Slab points out that blogging from the theater of operations (he's preparing for his 3d Iraq tour) help get out the word when there are no reporters around and that many of these stories are good news stories.

Tony Deiss says he sees big change happening in CENTCOM with the new commander, ADM Fallon. CENTOM is beginning to take bloggers seriously.

Jack Holt's boss from OSD-PA said that OSD is a big believer in blogs and will be doing more. They were really impressed by the way the blogosphere outed Reuters's "Green Helmet Guy" in last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Jack Holt says the military is getting better (he referenced the MNF-I YouTube channel) but what slows things down is the military must make sure the information they put out is correct while our enemies aren't so constrained.

Last Panel-- Support - More Than Just a Bumper Sticker

Hard as it is going to believe for the lefties to believe it there are really people out there who do support or troops by means other than undercutting them. I know. Hard to believe but true.

Moderator: Chuck Z of From My Position...On the Way!

Panelists: Sandra Edens from Sew Much Comfort, Roxie Merritt from OSD/America Supports You, Patti Patton-Bader from Soldiers' Angels, and Mary Ann Phillips from Soldier's Angels Germany.

Soldier's Angels says they have 110K registered members and another 100K cash donators.

Chuck Z asked OSD about policy changes the WRAMC scandal has brought on. Some of them are not great. For instance, they will no longer accept mail addressed to: any soldier and they won't release names of patients because of privacy. They aren't allowing volunteers not affiliated with groups in the wards.

Merritt said the outpouring of support has, in many cases, overwhelmed military installations. Troops having trouble getting their personal mail because of the volume of unsolicited mail. The America Supports You website is a clearing house for volunteer work and contributions.

Suffice it to say, Soldier's Angels are underwhelmed.

The key disconnect here, both on this panel and on the previous panel composed of family support groups, is that the military and OSD are unwilling to modify peacetime administrative procedures despite a war that is now in its fourth year.

One can't help but wonder if that part of the problem is that increased workload = increase money in a bureaucracy. Volunteers reducing workload works against the career prospects of people in the system.

Apparently the USO system is in disarray due to infighting. Soldier's Angels said they had been contributing money and things like coffee to the USO and stopped because of the nasty fights going on inside.

The Soldier's Angel rep from Landstuhl Germany says they have a good relationship with the hospital, they are welcomed there and get some support.

Again a real tearjerker about how the SA members at Landstuhl will set with unconscious, seriously wounded troops, hold their hand, make calls to their family and let them know what is happening. I don't think I have the guts to do that. It is much easier being shot at.

A short break, and now the conference is winding down.

Things I can report. Video does Mary Katherine Ham no justice. I completely understand why Wonkette's boyfriends prefer what they do. Milblogs are being taken seriously by people who are important.

Whether milblogs can harness this moment and transform how this and future wars will be covered is uncertain. But one thing is for certain, that possibility does exist.