There is a fascinating piece in Wednesday’s NY Times that examines efforts by the U.S. military to come to terms with the use of social networks by military personnel.
At first glance, it would seem that blogging and Tweeting by soldiers present an array of very real threats to military operations. The potential for the inadvertent release of confidential information, attacks on military networks by assorted malware and simple violations of decorum argue for strict limits on how uniformed personnel can use military internet connections to take part in burgeoning social networks.
Surprisingly, perhaps, many enlightened senior military officers advocate for a liberal policy to allow soldiers to stay connected to friends and family back home, entice new recruits and help shape public opinion about the military.
Yet another potential benefit to U.S. interests is not being publicly explored, however, even though it should a key argument for allowing soldiers to have reasonable access to social networks.
The war of ideas being fought by extremists in Muslim nations to enlist new recruits is a theater of war of deep concern to military strategists. Rightly so, they recognize that the only way to decisively win the war on terror is to dissuade new young people from the joining the ranks of extremism and violence.
Is there a better, more accessible way to offer these young people a glimpse of life within free societies than to surround them with the human and genuine voices of real soldiers who are now being demonized as the enemy?
The military is already using Twitter and YouTube in an official way for this purpose, but those efforts don’t go far enough. They don’t take full advantage of the power of open and free speech to sway people to the “right” ideas, and the unique platforms created by social networks for engaging in open dialogue. It would certainly sometimes be messy, and a strategy of allowing soldiers to engage in these dialogues is not without risk. But given the limited tools now available for the U.S. military to reach the Muslim Street, this should be a factor in the military’s decision about setting social media limits.
