From the Troops

[jake edwards]

My sister in law's husband is in Iraq. I hear stories from her that demonstrate how hush hush the administration is being about human rights, or lack there of.
Don't get me wrong, I hope that her husband comes home safely but I also think it's sad to see what they are told as truth to assure them that fighting the war is for the greater good. I feel that they are being mislead.

Example 1 - The husband informs us that the U.S. army bunks up in Iraqi homes. My sis-in-law says the iraqi familys are much more happier now to have soldiers take over their homes.
However, isn't that one of the complaints our founding fathers had towards King George, allowing British Troops to force stay in American homes?

Example 2 - Iraqi soldiers are asked to delete myspace or blog pages prior to going to Iraqi. My si-in-law is told me that it is for security purposes.
Isn't that a violation of freedom of speach? Why is it a security breech? Arn't soldiers trained to not disclose any important information about a mission, so having a public blog wouldn't be a security breech.

Example 3 - My sis-in-law is convinced that their law system is cruel and inhumane. Her example was a propaganda soaked story of a woman, fed up with an abusive husband, stabbed him to death. Than the government hung the woman in a public display of punishment.
But wouldn't the U.S. also execute a woman for murdering her husband? Yes it seems extream to publicly display the execution but the U.S. also allows the public to watch some executions.

Anyways, I love my sis-in-law and I know we just have different opinion about things.

[T.Beck]

Wow, you don't know how much I liked reading that, reading things that re enforce my own opinion is always great. Those were great examples man. I hate how blind some people can be. When I was at school at BYU-I I was one of very very few people against war, all the arguments those had for it(mostly misinformed by propaganda) where so weak. I'd hear similar things like "my friends brother just got home from Iraq, they are doing so many great things there, we are building schools and hospitals......."

my response, is "why is it our responisibilty to have my taxes pay to build schools and hospitals for some country that should have enough money from oil to do it for themseleves, whatabout the schools and hositals here? where veterans aren't even being taken care of" Also I hear that in these "schools" we build we actually create more anomosity and hatred towards us because we are trying to indoctrinate the kids with western ideals making their parents way pissed.

Not all military people feel this way, interestingly the most money contributed from people in the military to any presidential campaign is to Ron Paul's campaign who is obviously one of the most outspoken anti war persons there is.

[Spook_0]

When you join the army, they own your ass. It sucks that they restrict their communications, especially when so many soldiers have families at home waiting for them and people are dying every day in Iraq. we're already seeing the effects of those long tours, there's only so much anybody can take.

[Dylan]

People who know me know that I had a big binge with World of Warcraft playing days. Long story made short, there was a friend in our guild that went to Iraq. She went through the common occurance of having insufficient body armor to even serve in hostile territory. We created a pool of money to buy her body armor plates that she could put in her standard issue vest, but being the government that we live under, since the plates were not created by Haliburton, such armor was considered defective and insufficient, and she was urged to not wear it. Anything is better than nothing, but not unless the powers that be can make a profit from it. It's so infuriating, yet such a common problem to encounter, just makes me so mad.

It's no joke that lying is the currency of the world, which serves as no surprise that the leaders of today's world are so wealthy. This is the 21st century. Morals are very easily, and quickly replaced by a paycheck worthy of abandoning everything you were raised to believe in. That's assuming you were raised to have any morals in the first place, which is easily assumed to be untrue of the people who make all the worlds biggest decisions. The Deciders, so to speak.

[maliceinplunderland]

at first i couldn't figure out if you were talking about wow or not..

[Amber]

Example 2 - Iraqi soldiers are asked to delete myspace or blog pages prior to going to Iraqi. My si-in-law is told me that it is for security purposes.
Isn't that a violation of freedom of speach? Why is it a security breech? Arn't soldiers trained to not disclose any important information about a mission, so having a public blog wouldn't be a security breech.





It's called OPSEC.


Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies critical information to determine if friendly actions can be observed by adversary intelligence systems, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be interpreted to be useful to them, and then executes selected measures that eliminate or reduce adversary exploitation of friendly critical information.
OPSEC is a methodology that denies critical information to an adversary. Unlike security programs that seek to protect classified information, OPSEC measures identify, control, and protect generally unclassified evidence that is associated with sensitive operations and activities.
OPSEC is generally regarded as not only a methodology, but also a mindset, and has its roots in the Vietnam Conflict. Concerned with intelligence leaks to the enemy, Admiral Ulysses Sharp created the "purple dragon" team, which created the OPSEC process that is used today.
The OPSEC process consists of five distinct actions.
Identification of Critical Information. The identification of critical information (information that is vitally needed by an adversary) is important in that it focuses the remainder of the OPSEC process on protecting vital information, rather than attempting to protect all classified or sensitive unclassified information.
Analysis of Threats. This action involves the research and analysis of intelligence, counterintelligence, and open source information to identify who the likely adversaries are in the planned operation.
Analysis of Vulnerabilities. This action involves examining each aspect of the planned operation to identify OPSEC indicators that could reveal critical information and then comparing those indicators with the adversary’s intelligence collection capabilities identified in the previous action.
Assessment of Risk. First, planners analyze the vulnerabilities identified in the previous action and identify possible OPSEC measures for each vulnerability. Second, specific OPSEC measures are selected for execution based upon a risk assessment done by the commander and staff.
Application of Appropriate OPSEC Measures. The command implements the OPSEC measures selected in the assessment of risk action or, in the case of planned future operations and activities, includes the measures in specific OPSEC plans.
Additionally, an OPSEC assessment is an intensive application of the OPSEC process to an existing operation or activity by a multidisciplined team of experts. Assessments are essential for identifying requirements for additional OPSEC measures and for making necessary changes in existing OPSEC measures.
(Source: http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/jp3_13_3.pdf (http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/jp3_13_3.pdf))
OPSEC planners, working closely with Public Affairs personnel, must develop the Essential Elements of Friendly Information (EEFI) used to preclude inadvertent public disclosure of critical or sensitive information.
Many measures impact OPSEC. These include Counter Intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Counter_Intelligence&action=edit), Information Security (INFOSEC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INFOSEC), Transmission Security (TRANSEC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRANSEC), Communications Security (COMSEC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMSEC), and Signal Security (SIGSEC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SIGSEC&action=edit). As more and more of the force is digitized, INFOSEC takes on an evergrowing importance.
OPSEC is also referred to as "operational security" when referring to the security of a particular operation.


They continued to restrict access to certain things while I was out there. People were talking about things that they shouldn't be. I understand the frustration though.

[jake edwards]

Thanks Amber. The best input is from the people who have been there.

[Amber]

It definately sucks to have your communication limited out there. I can see certain situations where it would be required.