Wars have often been defined by the new technologies that shaped them. The Civil War was the first photographed conflict in U.S. history, news of World War II was delivered by movie news reels, television made Vietnam the living room war and Desert Storm was the first war broadcast live by satellite.
Historians will likely remember Operation Iraqi Freedom as iWar v1.0. The Web has done more than quicken reporting from the battlefield; it has made war interactive.
The article mentions several iWar blogs including:
"I blog for the same reasons soldiers wrote letters and diaries during previous wars: to communicate with family and friends, (and) to maintain an honest record of our daily existence," wrote 1st Lt. Matt Gallagher, in response to an e-mail about his blog http://kaboomwarjournal.blogspot.com. "Blogging is simply a 21st century tool for a new generation of soldiers to utilize."
The military itself, he said, has found the Internet to be an extremely effective way to deliver its message on Iraq and has its own sophisticated website, http://www.mnf-iraq.com/
The Islamic Army of Iraq, however, maintains an English website http://iaisite-eng.org/ where it assesses daily attacks on U.S. forces and encourages recruits for a regional Holy War that stretches across the Middle East.
The article also points to a list of soldiers' blogs which includes deployed, veteran, and even a few fallen soldiers.
The whole article is interesting starting from individual solders blogs, moving to blogs for the US Military and the Islamic Army of Iraq, and ending with a quick discussion of counter-cyber-terrorism by individuals and the US government.
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