Blogs from soldiers in Iraq are being shut down

I am saddened to see that a particular blog I was following of a soldier's experience in Iraq is gone. I knew that there was trouble on the horizon. A couple of weeks ago the soldier met with some of his higher-ups to discuss the content in his blog and according to the entry, they urged him only to avoid talking about things that may endanger the troops; and his following entries were then less detailed and I think he did a good job following their orders.

But that must not have been enough, because he has now removed all of his entries and left only one: "Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?" A friend of mine alerted NPR and they now have some coverage on the issue, Soldiers' Iraq Blogs Face Military Scrutiny.

I realize that there must be discretion in this area; we obviously don't need to be letting the enemy in on our strategy. But, this soldier was definitely trimming down the information at the end and still giving us a good picture of what war is really like. He even talked to some local Iraqi people and got information about how they feel with the troops there, how they feel about America in general, and so on. It was interesting discussion and much needed considering the massive liberal and conservative bias that our media now has. No one but these soldiers actually know what it is like to be there, and I for one was interested in hearing their story. It's a shame that they are being shut up, and we should ask ourselves how much of their freedom we should limit while they are there defending ours.