As had been alluded to in the recent past in various media outlets, potentially damaging information was released, whether intentionally or inadvertently, by servicemembers frequenting social networking sites. Eliminating this source of intelligence leakage is probably the more urgent, if less publicized, aim for blocking their access.

Most often those leaks were the result of technological ignorance and poor judgment on the part of the servicemembers, who neither understood the accessibility of their messages by potentially malicious outsiders ("the enemy"), or the impact of seemingly innocent information disclosures to effective military operations.

For instance, some home-sick Private could mention in a post to his wife that he couldn't reply to her messages for a few days while his unit moved from one specific town to another. Eaves-dropping persons cooperating with enemy forces could have easily identified over time who that Private was and with what unit he was deployed based on prior messages. Based on this example "innocent" message, the enemy would now know when to conduct their activities to either ambush the moving unit, move in behind the departing unit to renew their attacks on civilians, or otherwise make changes to their plans which could reduce or negate the effectiveness of U.S. military actions.

In the private sector, where a slip of the tongue might result in monetary loss or lay-off of personnel, these are events that can be recovered from over time and seldom results in death or dismemberment of the affected individuals. However, disclosure of military information often results in the deaths of untold numbers of highly-trained people when the enemy learns where, when and how to exploit that information. This is an eternal result, one that can't be overcome, and has far-reaching consequences for soldiers, family members and the public as a whole. Closing off that easily exploitable avenue of information is an obvious and insignificantly tiny sacrifice for the safety of all concerned.

I, as a former soldier who served in the era immediately prior to the popular explosion of the Internet, was subject to similar restrictions regarding public statements, publication in various media outlets, and casual statements to family and friends which could contain inadvertent militarily valuable information. The reason was quite clear: leaked information costs lives, not only fellow soldier's lives, but those of innocent civilians and enemy combatants as well. Regardless of your political viewpoint on war in general, or on this war in particular, or your views on the overall value of protecting America's interests and way of life, you cannot be so callous as to fail to understand the impact of unnecessarily lost lives.