Limiting Internet access for U.S. troops plays into enemy hands

WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- Why are U.S. soldiers blocked from accessing useful sources of information from many reputable institutions, including from some Washington-based think tanks, on computers that are operated by the U.S. Department of Defense itself?

The goal of the Web site blockers, it seems, is to cut American military men off from any views except those of the Department of Defense. In other words, the blockaders want to create a closed system. The late U.S. Air Force Col. John Boyd, the greatest of all U.S. military strategists, had quite a bit to say about closed systems, and it wasn't favorable.

Intelligence officers supposedly can go all the way to the top of their chain of command in the U.S. armed forces with a request to view a blocked Web site; their petition may or may not be granted.

But this just intensifies the problem, because it gives the intelligence community a monopoly on information. In fourth-generation war, it is essential that everyone do intel, not just a few specialists. Every private has to understand the environment he is operating in. Many Web sites can help him do that. But if he tries to access them on a Department of Defense computer, he finds them blocked. He is thrown back to pure kinetics -- the use of force without its amplification or direction by effective relevant intelligence, and this leads to our defeat.

Never could it be said more truly that we have met the enemy, and he is us. People on our own side are blinding our men who have to operate in combat situations. One person in a senior position could put an end to this absurd practice. This is an appropriate question to pose to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and to four-star Gen. David Petraeus, who currently runs Central Command and oversees U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iran. It is also a relevant question for President Barack Obama's national security adviser, four-star Gen. Jim Jones, the former commandant of the U.S. Marines Corps. The question for all of them is a very simple and straightforward one: "Surely you all understand that putting blinders on our own side is less than helpful. Anyone listening out there?"

I don't know where this mindless action to block access to relevant information sources on U.S. Department of Defense computers originates. But it is clear that whoever is responsible for it should get the Order of the Black Turban, First Class. They are doing the opponents of the United States a great favor.

Rigid control of information through a compartmented, stove-piped process is characteristic of militaries designed to fight second-generation war. Once again we see why 2G militaries cannot win 4G wars. Our defeats are less a product of what our enemy does to us than of what we do to ourselves.

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(William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation.)