Hackworth: "Muzzling Soldiers Is Nothing New"

Via Antiwar.com, here's a relevant column by David Hackworth about the internet and how it's preventing military high ups from muzzling soldiers as well as they have previously:

... after dealing with the fallout [from Vietnam], Washington vowed that never again would the press have so much access and freedom. And from Grenada to Panama to Kuwait to the reporters embedded last year in Iraq, the Pentagon has been into keeping the American people in the dark...

But one thing no one can control is the Net. Today there’s a laptop in almost every bunker, manned by grunts who are a whole lot smarter and faster than their watchdogs. Which means that despite a hogtied press corps, we’re getting the unspun word from Iraq – and the news ain’t good.

The brass are going nuts trying to stop this electronic tsunami of truth that’s washing over the land courtesy of a generation of sharp kids who’ve been armed with computers since age 4. Kids who glory in staying three irrepressible steps ahead of their minders via blogs, dummy ISP addresses and cute tricks like sending e-mails to cutouts for forwarding to guys like me.

So the brass have reverted to the weapon they’ve used to silence warriors since long before Caesar was running Rome: intimidation. The troops are being warned: Shut up; and if you don’t button it, you’ll be drummed out of the service...

“I resent the fascist-style approach that tries to paint any objection of current policy as traitorous,” says Ken Druhut. “I am a proud vet and gratefully enjoy the freedoms that our military has provided. But this Gestapo stuff has to stop.”