In good company

The New York Times reports on the military's embrace of social networks — both to recruit new soldiers, give existing ones an opportunity to let off steam and share public opinion on the war.

For example, General Ray Odierno, who commands American forces in Iraq, has a Facebook. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a YouTube channel and a copiously-updated Twitter feed.

Blogs are also populating the sphere. One Army specialist, nicknamed Mud Puppy, chronicles his time in eastern Afghanistan from a site called Embrace the Suck — "military slang for making the best of a bad situation," the Times writes.

"We have been in Iraq for more then 8 months and we all agree on one thing… this SUCKS! We left our families, our friends, our trucks and our lives to come fight a war thousands of miles away," the site's homepage reads.

In the Army in particular, personnel of all ranks are receiving invitations to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of its field manuals. The Department of Defense also promotes links to blogs, and its Flickr, Facebook, twitter and YouTube sites.

Some military members feel the Pentagon's attempts to penetrate social media are either feeble or propagandistic. "It's like your parents’ using modern slang and failing miserably," said Sergeant Selena Coppa, whose blog Active Duty Patriot, often criticizes the war in Iraq and has resulted in occasional friction between her and her superiors.

But many feel the Pentagon should relax its watch on those that wish to use social media. Any restriction could damage morale for those raised alongside the 'net, they argue.

"What comes out of my blog is the experiences of a soldier right in the middle of all of this," Mud Puppy wrote in an e-mail to the NYT. "I think that people need to hear from us, more than they need to hear from the big whigs. War has a cost, and that cost is paid by soldiers."