From time to time, Inside the Headquarters will bring you a sampling of defense-related musings from the blogosphere. Countless blogs — some truly defense related, others not so much — await. Some have news content, others offer insight, and still others strike one as lunatic rants. From highbrow to certifiable, from highly charged and polarized to just makin’ it through Iraq, defense blogs are like … yes … a box of chocolates.
We started our journey in search of what we thought we’d find: a consistent discussion of the issues. We’re still looking for more entries, and if anyone has some faves, please share them with us. We’ve heard bloggers form communities by shared interests, and that seems to be the case with military blogs. They find— and feed off of — one another. It’s a Facebook.com community of sorts, complete with photos, slick graphics, and a bizarro world where little is what it seems. Bloggers have their online persona (like the Roman General), and you envision these guys typing frenetically, hyped on caffeine and Red Bull.
One site that links to a number of defense-related blogs is Blogs of War, which, it says “is part of the Library of Congress MINERVA permanent historical collection on the war in Iraq.” Some of the other blogs listed (and there are a bunch) include Captain’s Journal, Gay Patriot, and for something international, check out Kings of War.
The Nov. 15 post on 7.62mm Justice echoes, in both words and an image, what we’ve been trackin’ ‘bout Bad Vlad and the Ruskies. We don’t think this is slight on the prez-elect; it’s just a statement of (creative) fact about Mad Bad Vlad. (Note Putin’s prominence and an absent Russian president what’s-his-name.) It serves as a subtle reminder of the Ruskies’ latest run at world domination. Overall, this blog might be a tad too political for certain defense tastes.
Black Five seems to be on everyone’s military blog list. Frenetic in appearance, it publishes some informative posts. Though we could not verify accuracy, one recent offering looked at Taliban tactics in Afghanistan. Another discussed a personal fave — the new piracy (not to be confused with the “new” FEMA.)
Soldiers Perspective is quirky, off-beat, and patriotic. “CJ” is the primary blogger. He (she?) is joined by “Marcus” and the “Roman General.”
Argghhh! has some good info. Its Nov. 19 entry includes a pdf of the strategic framework of the status of forces agreement between the U.S. and Iraq (another subject we like) with some commentary by the author.
There are some monster military blogs out there, too. Forces in the blogosphere. More on those later.
Blog on.