US military does social networking

"Afghan & coalition forces killed six militants in Paktika Province overnight during a operation to capture a Taliban commander," the U.S. military tweeted 11 hours ago. Its new embrace of Twitter is part of a wider plan to keep the public updated on current engagements in the Aghan region, no doubt influenced by the recent White House decision to adopt the same channels.

"Bringing the mission in Afghanistan directly to the people thru Twitter, Facebook and YouTube; watch vids, see pics, post ur comms," a new post says. An official statement tells us the adoption is in aimed at "rapidly delivering an unfiltered view of the war from troops on the ground, and opening a two-way dialogue with people around the world interested in the Afghanistan mission."

Anti-war protests on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube? Wait for it. Interestingly, the military says these won't be suppressed, provided they are free of offensive material like hate speech. Most of the messages are very supportive, so far, such as this one from Facebooker Debra Cole:

"I tell my boy he's in training to become a warrior. He's 10 years old! Thank you so much for your service and your comittment to protecting the American way. You rock!"

The posts are regulated, however -- the news of four US troops killed in two separate roadside bombings Monday had to be approved by NATO before being posted on Twitter, as they were under their command, for example.

Among the team behind the new ventures are former military journalist now Army staff sergeant Matthew Millham and Navy reservist Lt.j.g. Tommy Groves, a former CNN producer.

Though the military doesn't believe it is "bypassing" traditional media channels, merely offering new ones, it should help cut down on the nearly $5 billion it spends annually to "sway world opinion." In any case, as Robert Lee, an American subscribed to the Facebook feed told the Associated Press by e-mail, perhaps it will reduce the level of media distortion abundant today:

"I am a natural news junkie by nature, but the FB Afghan news feeds fill a very specific niche that I find valuable: consistent and timely updates on what's happening on the ground in Afghanistan with minimum interpretive filtering."