Another first for youtube

So here's an interesting point...

If the election of Barack Obama was the first truly "youtube election" then what is happening in Gaza would appear to be the first "youtube war".

As reported in The Times last week:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5424671.ece , the IDF has become the first national force to set up their own youtube channel.

I find this very interesting and, to be honest, very encouraging. Youtube is a powerful tool. It is the embodiment of how the internet aids democratic debate and government transparency (which is having interesting ramifications for regimes such as Iran's and China's - I'll write about this later).

In this case, it has given the IDF the opportunity to show the world that they are approaching this conflict in the proper way - no more false claims of massacres like with operation defensive shield in Jenin in 2002. This was in truth another example of the IDF behaving impeccably but various groups decided to spin the story to make it much more readable (for example http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1937048.stm. The truth of course was a long, long, long way from what was reported in this story)

Bring on the youtube revolution and the ascendancy of truth!

the IDF youtube channel: http://uk.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk