YouTube taunts recorded in Iraq

By Juba the sniper:

Juba might be called the Bogeyman of Baghdad. He's a star of the insurgent videos, a sniper who likes to boast electronically of his accomplishments.

Probably, Juba is a compilation of many snipers. His targeting and shooting of U.S. soldiers is meticulously and melodramatically recorded on camera. Each propaganda posting is accompanied by swelling music, elaborate graphics and enough footage of soldiers crumpling to the ground to send the signal that Juba is watching and waiting.

There's no question U.S. troops are also watching Juba, on the net, from their Iraqi bases. Some are even posting video replies — images of helmets with bullet holes in them, a retaliatory "You didn't get me, I'm still here" taunt.

This is the modern equivalent of First World War soldiers barking threats at each other across the trenches.

[snip]

...the Pentagon has just imposed new restrictions on its soldiers in theatre. It's now forbidding them from using military servers to access at least a dozen popular file-sharing sites, including YouTube and MySpace.

It's also imposed strict new rules on blogging. This will indeed limit what soldiers can see and send.

The Pentagon insists this is all about security. It doesn't want operations jeopardized. And it's concerned that all the uploading and downloading of imagery will slow or crash military servers. It is adamant it's not doing this for censorship reasons.

"The whole thing's a rotten idea." That was the immediate response of Spc. Colby Buzzell. He's a skateboarder turned gunner on leave now from serving in Iraq.

Buzzell was one of the first to have his own blog from the war in Iraq — milbloggers they're called — and his postings became an award-winning book entitled My War: Killing Time in Iraq.

He now joins the ranks of those who don't buy the Pentagon's argument and think the military planners are simply panicking.

"They are blaming it on bandwidth and operational security." But the real reason, he suggests, is so military commanders "can control what kind of information gets released back home."

His take, though, is that "I don't think it will permanently shut bloggers or video-posters down. I think a lot of soldiers will find a way to get around the policy." And he's probably right.

Already, some military personnel are simply waiting until they get home to post their Iraq compilations. Others know that the Pentagon ban hasn't cast a wide enough net. There are still many internet-sharing sites that are still popular and still accessible from military servers.

Certainly the Juba videos make it through somehow.

There has been no war as wired as this one and no soldiers as free as today's to talk about how they feel and what they see and do almost as soon as it's happened.

The internet was originally conceived by military planners but even military use of it has slipped from their control. Once again, Iraq has changed everything.