Are American soldiers fighting the first 'YouTube war'?

soundoff (2 Responses)

1. Bob
   

   I don't think it is a smart move to let anyone especially our enemies have any knowledge of our military and how we perform or act in combat. A Lot of countries get upset if they see an American soldier with a dead enemy, but you didn't hear much from them when our enemies dragged our dead soldiers down a street. The terrorists that we are fighting showed on live video the beheading of people and they get upset by a photo of our soldiers with a dead enemy. Oh well.

   April 18, 2012 at 11:07 pm |
2. nate1/327INF
   

   The posting of videos matters litte because all anyone has to do to understand the infantry tactic is google our battle drills according to the proper FM. Now, I understand that the General, in all his time in combat... knows a thing or two about the common grunt. Well, the thing is they aren't, for the most part, posting them for posterity, they are posting the video to show what is going on and as a vet and now history major I say kudos because it provides a primary source that we would not have otherwise. Now, as for the Los Angles Times showing of the pictures of Soldiers posing with dead suicide bombers, it's hard to justify yourself when saying that well this is just doing what they do. When you show two bad apples posing with people who died as they wished they would and imperil some 40,000 people you are showing that you care more about the sensationalism than an actual story. Well, I guess the unit that was redeploying to Afghanistan that had posed with the body parts does make it okay, wait, no, because most people only stay in a unit for two years and I'm betting that those who posed for the picture are no longer in it. All that "jounalism" does is put service members, and especially those within the unit, at risk above and beyond what they would have. Good reporting LA Times, it's a wonder why newspapers are dying.

   April 22, 2012 at 5:34 am |