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Blogging General Reaches Out to Troops, Blows Off Security Fe...

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While most of the Army is still wringing its hands trying to figure out what to do about blogs and other social media, the two-star general overseeing 19,000 U.S. soldiers scattered across 17,000 square miles of southern and central Iraq has decided to start blogging himself and holding online chats with his troops.

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Oates doesn't seem bothered by the push-back. "I enjoy the open engagement with my soldiers. I'm interested in hearing their thoughts. And I have no problem with challenging them in an honest open fashion. I think this medium allows that," he says.

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Ironically, Oates had to wait until he got over to Iraq to start his social media push; a lumbering military bureaucracy kept him from blogging, while his troops were stationed at Ft. Drum. "We did not get anywhere with it while we were in the United States because the rules, procedures, policies, and regulations are extremely inhibiting to doing that sort of thing."

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Oates decided to focus his efforts on this internal audience, as opposed to some other military social media experiments, which try to persuade a larger crowd. For now, he wants to unfiltered access to his troops.

And he wants them to talk right back. The chat gave junior officers and enlisted men a chance to talk directly with their commanding general -- which is unusual, offline. The chat's anonymity let them be frank, even about Oates' beloved (and ill-fated) Texas football teams. 

The general shrugs the interactions off as no big deal. "Fundamentally what I'm doing is not new. What I'm doing is communicating with my soldiers. What's new is the medium in which we're communicating."

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