Replying to TJ of Basic Training Blog wrote, via e-mail:

Im with 10th MTN, also based on Liberty and have been blogging here since my arrival in August. General Vines of the XVIII corps has a policy letter for the forces here in Baghdad that I can send you if you havent seen it. It which pretty much says blogging is ok, minus OPSEC and the obvious. And since I am MI, you know my daily stuff can't go up. My CO and 1SG were curious where I even found it because they didn't know it existed. The only thing she added was to not have photos of vehicles.

I do have one complaint with how the military, or at least our Division,
has handled stuff, and it's a complaint that might be of interest to
Bloggers. That is this:

When we were prepping for deployment, all the
leadership were given various briefings on security matters. One was on
blogs, and the danger they pose. Now, I get security issues - obviously
you don't want people posting sensitive information, that might affect a
mission. But our leadership at least came back from the briefing with the
sense that virtually nothing should be said in a Blog - "let people read
about it in the news. If you want to talk about stuff, tell your family
you're fine and all but don't talk about anything, they can watch the news
or read it in the papers."

That is, they seem to have been given a highly
negative sense of the blogosphere, and were discouraging soldiers from
posting anything that might affect anything. Which to me is sass-akwards.
Milbloggers, in my non-humble opinion, have done more for the war effort
and more to correct misleading reports than the entire Army Public Affairs
Branch has (note: this is not a slam on them, but praise for the MilBlog
community). The Army should be encouraging troops to give *more*
information on their first-hand impressions and how things are going, not
less. "Winning the War" begins at home - we're not going to be defeated
here, but may have to pull out because of people's impressions at home,
which in my opinion seem to be shaped by misleading reports of what the
overall picture here is. (Note again - I'm writing less from my own direct
experiences than from the impression I get second-hand, both talking to
people who have direct experiences and reading what I consider to be
reliable sources).

This attitude towards soldier-bloggers, which might be
limited to just the 4th Division, seems to be another example of the Army
shooting itself in the foot - making it's mission harder.

(Just to
emphasize, again - I know there is good reason for not posting sensitive
information that could affect ongoing missions. But they negative attitude
our leadership came back with from the briefings they got on blogs went
beyond that, to encompass just about everything someone might post that
wasn't utterly banal).

I haven't posted in a long time, I know. But here's an update, for those
who may be interested.

My detachment got into Kuwait in mid-October, and
processed through a dusty, sandy Camp out in the middle of nowhere - we
spent Thanksgiving there; it wasn't bad at all. Just somewhat of a wait
before we crossed every "T" and dotted every "I" before going Up
North.

We went up a few days after Thanksgiving, into Baghdad where
we're based. It's almost like working at home (but not quite, obviously).

If you ever think of taking a trip to Iraq (once things calm down, I
know), this time of year is the time to do it. The weather has been great
so far - balmy, not hot. The nights are somewhat chilly, but not cold. The
soil here is very fine, though - silty because, well, it's silt (river run
off, natch). So I can see that when it rains, it'll turn into mud that
will stick to everything, and when the wind picks up - yah, I can see
where the "sand storms" come from (though this part of Iraq isn't sandy).

The people here that I've run into, both military & civilian, are very up-beat. This is a very comfortable posting - the very definition of a REMF base camp. We've got just about everything here, and my biggest concerns are getting internet hooked up in my trailer and how I'll handle the summer heat (I'm a pale Caucasian from a cold-weather state, and sweat profusely in the heat; melting). When those are your biggest concerns, you know you have it good.

This is not to say that all of Iraq is secure, just that the little bit of it I'm in is highly secure. This also means, though, that I'm not the best source of "first-hand observations of how things are going on the ground". My mission, which is serving the personnel of 4th ID and it's attached units, doesn't have me leaving the post. My job is to take care of those who are helping build the country up (right now, both soldiers and civilian contractors.

Yes, I've also seen some Iraqi troops, though they aren't a big presence on Baghdad. But I don't have any good (or bad) idea how well (or badly) they're performing, just from having seen them. Everyone I've seen has been positive, relaxed, and confident. But, again I emphasize that I haven't seen everyone.

The one regret I'll possibly have from this situation, as a historian, is being in a country with so much history without being able to get out and about and see some of the things that I've always been interested in - the ruins of Babylon, of Ninevah, and the like, or even much of Baghdad. That's not the job we're here to do, natch, but even on R&R or Pass, site-seeing isn't on the agenda. Oh well, there's always the future - and now I know when would be a good time to come.

We were here during the time of the elections - I didn't post on them because, like much else, I didn't have any direct experience that would enable me to say something someone else wasn't able to say, better. But I will say that things passed in relative calm here. On Sunday night the week before the polls opened, the air was filled with tracer rounds all around camp, and the sound of gunfire - it was Iraqis, firing their weapons. But not in an attack, in celebration.

As things sort themselves out I hope to be making more posts again, and have some impressions. I might - no promises again - also start posting again on wider issues, but lately my heart hasn't been in it. It all seems like cud-chewing, the same old stuff being re-aired and having to be re-re-re-rebutted for the Nth time. Facts don't seem to matter or make any impact, especially when it comes to the self-described "Reality-Based Community". But I suppose one should listen to the words of Winston Churchill and never give up the good fight anyhow. I haven't, but I've taken a bit of a sabbatical, at least from the Blog Wars. I will say that, having heard about the insurgents who helped guard polling places, that we live in an odd, Bearded-Spock Universe when the loyalists of a dictatorship are active in protecting the elections, while the Western Progressives who claimed to be interested only in popular democracy and who got all offended if you suggested they were in favor of the Saddam regime, claiming to only be interested in the people of Iraq, were nowhere to be found when those same Iraqis went to the polls. They were motivated to protect the institutions of dictatorship, but not to help the Iraqi people secure the institutions of democracy.

That doesn't make me smug, or "I told you so". It makes me sad.