And here's what I need him or her to be able to do:

This essay is from the redesigned and relaunched joshua.trevino.at -- where the former Tacitus is at now.

The Army is shutting down its bloggers. It is a minor move, but a telling one: the Army of the American people does not wish its soldiers to communicate, unmediated, with that people. The appeal is made to operational security, but this is at best a thin excuse for an institutional reflex that has everything to do with bureaucratic self-protection, and little to do with winning the war. The best spokesmen for the war are the soldiers fighting it: is the Army truly better off for having suppressed the tremendous battle reportage of SPC Colby Buzzell? Surely not. Is American support for the war more likely to be bolstered by a slick PAO than an earnest 11B? Certainly not. Small things tell of big things, and the big thing here is not the Army versus its bloggers -- a fight the Army will lose in time -- but the Army's willingness to shut down an entire medium of communication, information, and support between its warfighters and the American people. After a generation of increasing alienation between the Army and America, that medium is desperately needed by both.

But the Army has shut it down, and the Army will not reconsider. I was never an Army blogger -- but I did, back when the internet was still mostly novelty, once keep online a small page of quotes from my Army service, for the amusement of friends. Imagine my surprise, in the pre-Google era, when the battalion commander learned of it, and took swift action to bring it down. I complied -- what else could I do? -- but the offline listing survives.