Pentagon wary as troops blog

Matthew C. Burden is a former intelligence officer in the Army who started one of the earliest military blogs, Black Five.


A Reservist Describes Life on the Warfront (September 9, 2009)
Links to Blogs and Military Resources (September 9, 2009)
At War: Leashing the Blogs of War



There are two sides to the military’s foray into the freewheeling world of the interactive Web. At the highest echelons of the Pentagon, civilian officials and four-star generals are newly hailing the power of social networking to make members of the American military more empathetic, entice recruits and shape public opinion on the war.

Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of American forces in Iraq, is on Facebook. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, has a YouTube channel and posts Twitter updates almost daily.