e-rocky-confidential

The Milblog Commandments

There’s another *milblog* that seems to have far surpassed mine in terms of popularity, attractively titled My War— Fear and Loathing in Iraq, and it has an account of what amounts to one of my worst nightmares: being found out by the unit leadership, and then being told to submit one’s writing for unit approval before each posting. I’m not clear on the details, nor would I divulge them if I were, but I think it was a similar event that wound up grounding Levi’s blog not too long ago.

For the time being I suppose I can hold my breath and hope that no similar fate awaits me, but in case that day arrives here’s a proposition to any higher-ups who may take an interest in this site: continue to give this blog your implicit approval by continuing to ignore it, and I promise to continue to observe the following self-imposed commandments, to which I already adhere so closely:

1) Never compromise mission security by mentioning details about upcoming or ongoing movements or missions.
2) Never post potentially embarrassing information about identifiable members of my military unit (yes, I’ve been holding back, and it hurts).
3) Never “get political”.
4) Never mention or allude to classified information.
5) Never mention the name of my military unit, nor provide information that might allow non-Coalition agents to identify, for purposes nefarious or otherwise, my unit or other units, or our specific position at any time in *the theatre*.
6) In general, endeavor to highlight the fact that for all the things that may or may not be going wrong, there are a number of things going right— for my family and friends are reading this site with the hope of being reassured that I am basically doing okay, which I am.
7) Do not strive to be everything to everyone— if a reader is looking for a *milblog* that tells the tales of combat soldiers in all their blood-soaked glory, direct them to the appropriate sites, for there are many.
8) Try to blog more frequently than I have in the recent past, so as not to be eclipsed by the right-wing nut-jobs who do in fact "get political"-- some of whom actually seem intent upon tarnishing the name of a decorated war hero now running for President.
9) Do express ambivalence about my role as a soldier and a human being and a student of various human pursuits, with all the requisite “fear and trembling” that accompany such an existence— for the failure to do so is to elicit phony positivity, and the Holden Caufeilds of this world can smell phoniness like a dog smells fear.
10) It’s a truism that “common sense is not common”— if it’s not apparent that there is a sufficient sensibility driving the narrative, or whatever it is, that you read here, then God help us all.

Oh, yeah-- lest I neglect that other captivating aspect of My War's newest post: Neither lawyers looking to help finance someone's future education, nor literary agents looking for the next hot young thing to publish, should feel at all disgouraged from sharing their good graces 'round here. Drop me a line at erockyconfidential@yahoo.com.