What Can Soldiers Say?

If the military is to embrace blogging, it must provide guidance and education about what soldiers can and cannot say. When soldiers blog, they tread through a minefield of potential problems--for example, violating OPSEC, slandering superior officers or politicians, or simply saying something stupid that could later blow up on them. The Old School has addressed these concerns by simply banning blogging. For reasons I've stated before, I believe that is the wrong answer. Instead, the military should establish clear guidelines that give soldiers the freedom and confidence to blog within specific boundaries.

What should these guidelines be? This is a big question that demands a lot of thought and discussion. I wrestle with this myself, which is why I've mostly limited this blog so far to discussions about technology and its integration into the military. I'm testing the waters before I turn to more sensitive topics like the severe problems I see everyday in the military's Arabic training pipeline or how we should be engaging with Arab media. But I have a few thoughts, which I'll share below.

In August of 2007, Lt. Col. Bob Bateman wrote an article in Altercations titled "Can Say They That?" It was reposted on Small Wars Journal. It was about precisely this question. Bateman draws his guidance about media interaction from Col. Hal Moore (of We Were Soldiers fame), who gave the following guidance to soldiers deploying to Vietnam in 1965:

"Talk to any reporter you want. Say what you want, but speak the truth. Do not exaggerate, and stay in your lane. Talk about what you know personally, what you have seen, what you have done, and then stand by your words."

This guidance doesn't cover everything--it doesn't help certain C-17 pilots who want to discuss why US agricultural trade policy is undermining our national security, for example--but it's certainly a good place to start. Moore's rules aren't just good for press interaction; they're good for any soldier who wants to raise criticism and fight for change within his or her organization. Moore's rules have kept me out of trouble more than once in my career (or at least out of worse trouble) when I've raised criticisms and suggested improvements.

Col. Bateman expands on these principles in his article. It's worth a read.