IRAN: Gates and Mullen talk Twittering, texting, the modern military and Iran
They’re calling it the “Twitter revolution.”
Young Iranians around the world are turning to social networking sites to get around their government’s attempts to block coverage of protests against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and restrict communication between the demonstrators.
The Times’ Top of the Ticket shares an interesting video in which two members of an older generation -- Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- discuss the effect of new personal communication technology in the world today.
Gates recalled the role that the Internet played in penetrating the old Iron Curtain, helping the Soviet Union to crumble and liberating Eastern Europe from Communist domination. And Gates noted, with apparent pleasure, that some unnamed countries around the world (can you say Iran and China?) can try to block these evolving communications but can no longer shut them all down.
But the questioning and conversation itself evolved into how the modern military, run by older personnel but manned and womanned by young people (average age 21) must use these new methods to both get its operational messages and philosophies out but also to get valuable feedback back.
See the video and read the full post on Top of the Ticket.
-- Alexandra Zavis in Los Angeles
Full coverage of Iran's presidential election and its aftermath.
