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The Internet and The War
John Jorsett writes "Wired Magazine has an interesting article on the realities of the use of communication and navigation technology in the Iraq war. Particularly intriguing is the use of chat rooms to engage experts thousands of miles away in helping to solve problems at the troop level in the field. And if you think your admin job is tough, try running your servers in 125 degree heat in a sandstorm."
The military better watch itself -- if they start relying too heavily on technology, soldiers will lose the fundamental skills that make them unique.
I am over here... now I am back over here!
A/S/L - 19 iraqi single male, looking for sniper...
We cook our lunches on the servers. We left a 2U gap so we could also have grills.
Tell me this isn't true? The US military resort to Microsoft Chat to communicate a possible chemical attack? Surely they'd have some custom chat software with some heavy duty encryption in it?
Get your own free personal location tracker
Several things come to mind reading this. For one thing, they appear to be using Microsoft Chat over the internet to communicate reconnaissance information. Whether such communication is secure is something I'd really like the govt. to think about, if not it could be putting soldiers at risk. One thing that is mission critical is tech support, and apparently they have a top tier (premier?) support from Microsoft. I wonder if anybody short of say IBM could offer a competing Open Source (*BSD or Linux) based solution?
A1 sauce and your tank's exhaust. pls send wingz the commander replies.
I think "every" might be a slight exaduration. But seriously, does that extend to allied forces, cos we (British) always seem to take a lot of hits from people allegedly on the same side as us. :o(
And also, it's all very well having two soldeirs guarding it, but what happens if a missile lands right on top of them. You need them separated by a few miles.
Get your own free personal location tracker
"Welcome to Siprnet," he says. GCCS runs over Siprnet - the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network - in the same way that Web applications run over the public Internet. The difference with "Sipper" is that it's basically a far-flung local area network. To maximize security, it doesn't connect with the Internet proper. But it links Centcom to the battlefield and, among other things, allows Franks to talk to Rumsfeld and President Bush via two-way videoconference every evening.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
From text of article:
"If a general has a problem with his Web browser, then I fix it," Cluff says.
"How do you fix it?" I ask.
"I consult Microsoft online help," he replies.
So what happens if a bunch of soldiers in the field die due to a failure of/flaw in a Microsoft product? Will Microsoft get off scot-free because of their "no liability" language in their EULA? Would there suddenly be knee-jerk laws passed concerning software reliability?
Discuss.
~Philly
If you actually *read* the article, you will see that the reporter talks about (sigh) a "secret Internet" and a "Tactical Internet". What they really mean is a "WAN" (the reporter refers to it as a "far-flung LAN"). It even says that the WAN is NOT connected to the Internet.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
General speaking, you don't encrypt at the software level, you encrypt the comm links themselves, using NSA-approved hardware. That way, you don't have to worry about it at the application level, and there's no opportunity to build in hidden channels to bypass the encryption.
They also need an MP3 player to torture those poor captured representatives of the former Iraqi regime with heavy metal and children's songs. Very demanding admin work too. Military admin needs to know how to operate Winamp player! No use for M16 as a human rights and democracy tool? Might look a bit nasty on the telly?
And then you might need some kind of a Geiger counter or something to find those non-existent WMD's this war was supposedly about.
And do not forget to buy a pair of robot brains for your smart president.
This is the high tech reality of American Warfare today!
Mr. American President says "Boot my operating system!"
For one thing, they appear to be using Microsoft Chat over the internet to communicate reconnaissance information. Whether such communication is secure is something I'd really like the govt. to think about, if not it could be putting soldiers at risk.
You're kidding, right? The DOD created the internet concept to make a more secure network. They have crap to keep things secret that we could only dream of.
Given that one "internet" concept alone, and the fact that Echelon probably exsists and the US Govt has probably been using it for decades, and that military planes explode in impact specifically to destroy technology...
Cmon. Secrecy has been *the* number one asset of the military for centuries. Its not a new concept.
After all, the Chinese got inside our spyplanes and didn't get jack squat out of it. That should let you know how paranoid we are about our information. So to say, "be careful that is not secure," to the US Military is like saying, "be careful, that stove is hot," to a five star chef.
"If We Run Out of Batteries, This War is Screwed."
By Joshua Davis
It's early April, days before the fall of Baghdad, and a convoy of trucks from the 11th Signal Brigade is rolling through southern Iraq. The mission: establish a digital beachhead in central Iraq. Without this advance node and a handful like it, the Army's Third Infantry Division cannot receive the precise targeting information it needs to fight its way into the capital.
About 9 am, soldiers in the convoy see something that fills them with dread: four dead sheep by the side of the dusty road. Within a mile, they spot two more and quickly pull the convoy to a halt. What many had feared since arriving in the Middle East now looks to be a reality: chemical attack. The convoy leader does two things, one in keeping with well-established military protocol and one entirely new. First, he makes a lot of noise. He lets out three long blasts on the horn - the low tech signal for a chemical attack. Then, after donning his own protective gear, he turns to a computer terminal bolted to the dash of his vehicle.
Suspect chemical attack, he types into a Microsoft Chat session running on the tactical Internet, the military's battlefield communications system.
Multiple dead sheep by side of road. Pls advise.
Two hundred miles away - in a warehouse at Forward Command - Lieutenant Colonel Norman Mims, the intelligence officer for the 11th, sees this curious message appear in the chat room and replies, How many sheep over how much distance?
6 sheep. Approx. 1 mile.
A veteran of Desert Storm, Mims has learned that sheep in the region regularly die and are simply dragged to the side of the road. The number and distance are typical.
Unless air quality is degraded, chemical attack unlikely.
If this had been Gulf War I, the convoy would have lost a full day - calling in the incident by radio, describing it to three or four rungs up the command ladder, and waiting for a crew of specialists to arrive, test the air, and give the all-clear. But this war is different. An email gives the sheep's coordinates to a chemical investigation team, and the convoy just keeps moving.
The history of warfare is marked by periodic leaps in technology - the triumph of the longbow at Crécy, in 1346; the first decisive use of air power, in World War I; the terrifying destructiveness of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, in 1945. And now this: a dazzling array of technology that signals the arrival of digital warfare. What we saw in Gulf War II was a new age of fighting that combined precision weapons, unprecedented surveillance of the enemy, agile ground forces, and - above all - a real-time communications network that kept the far-flung operation connected minute by minute.
Welcome to the so-called revolution in military affairs, the new theory of war that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been promoting since he arrived at the Pentagon in 2001. Generals at Central Command, in Qatar, put the concept into practice as they sent troops racing toward Baghdad, hopscotching across Iraq, and sidestepping enemy assaults. If rear units were attacked, if supply lines were threatened - so the theory went - the technology would allow soldiers to spot the problem quickly enough to dispatch defenders, who would swarm to the rescue. Information would take the place of a massive troop presence on the ground. Dead sheep could be safely ignored. In short, the war was a grand test of the netcentric strategy in development since the first Gulf War.
At least, that's the triumphal view from the Pentagon briefing room. But what was it like on the ground? As Wired's war correspondent, I tracked the network from the generals' plasma screens at Central Command to the forward nodes on the battlefields in Iraq. What I discovered was something entirely different from the shiny picture of techno-supremacy touted by the proponents of the Rumsfeld doctrine. I found an unsung corps of geeks improvising as they went, cobbling
Sure, I suppose. Are we talking IRC, or AOL though?
I mean, go to debian's IRC server, idle in the debian chat for an hour so everyone who could have possibly cared that you joined has now forgotten, then ask some linux question.
And despite the current debate, fanboy-raving, intellectual discussion, or A/S/L exchange (okay I haven't seen that there), you'll get an immediate and helpful answer, or a request for clarification.
As a linux newbie I've come to rely heavily on the helpful people in the debian IRC channel. Hell, half the reason I haven't even tried another distribution is because I've never experienced technical support of such calibur.
It's strange to hear that, and believe me it's strange to say it, that an IRC channel could be your best tech support experience ever, but it's true.
pla, the best advice I can give to you is to go out and search for good room/channel/group. "Normal" human beings might be outnumbered by the A/S/L transgendered males (so to speak), but there's bound to be a gathering of your liking out there somewhere.
There has been alot of press made about the US military's changes in the way it communicates and it's desire to "swarm" on an enemy instead of the old way it and every other army has moved and communicated.
Basicly since the Romans every conventional army moved like a great set of parallel lines with interconnecting lines between them for communication and supply.
There has been a layer of abstraction between what the Generals tell the Colonels, what the Colonels tell the Captains, what the Captains tell the Lieutenants and what the Lieutenants tell thier soldiers.
Since the Revolution the layers of abstraction grew wider and wider.
By the Second World War, the United States Army had the widest gulf between the commanders and the men at the front of any Army in the European Theatre of Operation.
By Vietnam it was worse and the Gulf War it came to a head when Schwarzkopf canned a General who refused to advance due to a lack of fuel for his M-1s.
Now what is happening is remarkably fast adaptation of technology and communications systems for an Army.
In Afghanistan it was possible for A-Teams on the ground to contact the Pentagon directly and request supplies for themselves or thier allies on the ground and to have those things loaded within hours on C-17s.
Beyond the chat-rooms and GPS are the data-links between aircraft like the newer F-15s, F-22s, Grippens, Comanche, or data-links between ships, helicopters and patrol aircraft.
An example of this can be seen in the F-22. The radar of the F-22 has many modes, but one of them is to sit there dark and listen for radar signals, then it sends out pencil thin beams to detect the engines of an aircraft and it compiles a list of possible types from that signature. Using a data-link the detecting F-22 can send back detailed target information and aircraft behind the lead aircraft can launch AIM-120 missiles on a profile to light thier radars only when they get close to the target.
People have been pooh-pooing this revolution in communication and sensors in the press, but I think there is an assumption of rapid technology adpotion in the private sector that just doesn't happen in the military, but as militaries go the United States is adopting at a revolutionary rate.
MENTION THE WAR...
[John Cleese, Faulty Towers]
Private : Colonel! It says, "MSN Messenger down for maintenance. Please try again in 15 minutes"
:Sir! XP just had to install an update. I need to reboot! ...Sir? Sir???
Colonel : Shit, boy! We're gonna get gassed 'cause Billy didn't change the oil up in Redmond! Sheeeit.
Private : Do you want me to bring out the pigeons?
Colonel [lights cigarette]:Fuck it. Send an e-mail to command that says, "possible chemical attack underway. pls advise."
Private
[Colonel breaks M-16 over leg]
Thankfully, a giant penguin dropped down from the sky with reliable software, just before it was too late.
I don't mean this as a troll (though somewhat tongue-in-cheek), but seriously, asking for military advice on IRC or AOL strikes me as akin to asking the NIDA for information on the dangers of marijuana - ie, even if you manage to get any factual information, you'll never find it from the BS it comes buried under.
You don't seriously believe that a tank commander is going to go on some AOL or IRC chat and start asking a bunch of random schmucks for advice about a gas attack do you? The military is using off-the-shelf technology to construct their own private networks and chats because that's a convenient structure for what they're trying to accomplish. I work with these guys and they're not quite that stupid (they just might even say the same about me if I'm lucky).
Further down in the article the exaggeration is revealed:
About a quarter of the trucks in this convoy have GCCS
The system is still really powerfull though:
One zoom out and I'm looking at the entire Baghdad region. Another zoom out and I see all of Iraq, with forces dotted in the north and heavily clumped around the capital in the center. One more click and I'm looking at the entire sphere of Central Command, from the edge of Libya to Pakistan. I see forces in Turkey, and clustered in Iraq and Kuwait. I feel like a four-star general. I'm sitting in the Iraqi desert looking at troop movements across 25 countries.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
Interesting article from WSJ that talks about these new Warriors.
Reminds me of the scene from the South Park movie, where the holographic war map crashes, and the General summons Bill Gates. Here an MP3 of their conversation.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
The news ruined the word "embedded" for me...Embedded reporters watching soldiers fight, take a piss, talk about this war like it had been going on for even two months, watching them do whatever...I will always hear that word from now on and think of soldiers doing mundane things.
As for them using "Microsoft Chat" or whatever they called it, that's just plain irresponsible. If people have trouble using computers for simple email every day then why on God's (sandy) earth do they think those same technologies will hold up in much more mission-critical military conditions?
"GCCS runs over Siprnet - the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network"
Just how damned difficult is it to get acronyms right?
The correct definition is "Secure Internet Protocol Network," although I have also heard it as "Secure Internet Protocol Router Network"
Apparently, very difficult.
Most of the important stuff in the theater of operations runs on Solaris, usually.
It looks like you're communicating news of a WMD emergency. Would you like help?
__ Get help with emergency
__ Continue with emergency without help
__ Howl in agony and clutch at face as it melts grotesquely into the desert sand
Now I'm sure someone will complain about my talking up the F-22 and claim I'm over Tom Clancy'ing it's capabilities or something.
My info came from International Air Power Review Volume 5 pages 60-62 and covers the ALR-94 passive receiver, Intra-Flight Datalink and APG-77 radar in non-cooperative target recognition and jet engine modulation modes.
like cleaning everything... constantly... endlessly.
Most people who have never deployed to that region of the world don't realize that it's not sandy... it's dusty. The soil (or what passes for soil) is this lightweight, fine, adherent brown dust... that dust got into damned near everything, even closed pelican cases (don't ask me how).
It wreaked havoc on our COMM and Systems guys; they were constantly cleaning their boxen, from the servers, right on down to the Dell laptops we were using.
Even in my field (medical), we were constantly cleaing and mopping out our Operating Room (in a tent, naturally).. you could NEVER get ahead of the dust. This drove my surgeon colleagues nuts... you could pretty much count on a higher complication rate with an environment like that. When the sandstorms would roll in, forget about it.
A bunch of us ran our own private LAN between a bunch of tents; honing our 31337 CounterStrike 5killz (I tell ya, those terrorists were in deep trouble if they tried to take us on... our M4 and AWP skills would have devastated those Al-Queda noobs... ) Fortunately, our hardware was not as mission-essential as the systems/COMM types... we could afford the occasional crash (though it did hurt to lose your sweet kill ratio).
Demanding environment, alright... it's amazing our stuff worked as well as it did.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
There are more pressing military waste issues than M$ licensing to worry about, like the one trillion missing USD that they simply can't explain. ("Sorry, Senator, I must have left it in my other pants.")
The challenge is to integrate the technology without reducing the skills that make the particular occupation unique. I own a hardware store and we've embraced all sorts of inventory, POS, web, wireless and communication technology. However, we still need to be able to manually examine a rusted ballcock that a customer yanked out of their toilet and hook them up with the proper replacement parts.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
"What's funny about using Microsoft Chat," he adds with a sly smile, "is that everybody has to choosean icon to represent themselves. Some of these guys haven't bothered, so the program assigns them one. We'll be in the middle of a battle and a bunch of field artillery colonels will come online in the form of these big-breasted blondes. We've got a few space aliens, too."
This is exactly what I fear, that going to war is fun and not causing any harm to whoever is in it. First the US television stations didn't want to show the pictures of their own casualties, now this is added.
War is cool, war is fun and it doesn't cause any harm[*]!
[*] no pictures of harmed people by our own actions will be shown.
bash$
*** soldier (jimbo@army.iq) has joined channel #help ... ...
*** techie (whizkid@pentagon.mil) has joined channel #help
<soldier> hey, anybody know how to get sand out of a gatling gun?
<techie> Sure thing. let me look it up for you. brb
<soldier> thanks
*** katie (luvkitties@ipt.aol.com) has joined channel #help
<katie> hay all!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<soldier>
<katie> hi solder ASL??
<techie> Approximately when did you get the sand in the gatling gun?
<katie> huh??
<soldier> about 15 minutes ago.
<techie> okay, brb
<katie> techie what r u talking about!!
*** jenny (nsync_rulz@msn.com) has joined channel #help
<katie> hi jenny how r u ltns!!!!!!! lol
<jenny> K8E!!!! kisskiss
<soldier>
<techie> How much sand would you say is inside the gatling gun?
<jenny> wtf lol
<soldier> well, there's quite a bit. it's draining out like an hourglass.
<jenny> hour glass??
<katie> jenny geuss what, taylor told lisa today that he want's me 2 invite him 2 the dance on saturday
<jenny> omfg LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
<jenny> wat did u say? did u say anything 2 him?
<techie> The sand is draining out of the Gatling gun like an hourglass?
<soldier> pretty much, yes.
<katie> heehehe!! well i went up 2 him and said hi and then he bought me a bottle of mt dew code red!! LOL
<techie> I see. have you tried shaking it vigorously?
<katie> techie wtf would i shake it vigorusly, it would fizz over and explode
*** techie rolls eyes
<techie> soldier: Have you tried shaking the gatling gun vigorously?
<soldier> no. brb
*** taylor (linkinparkfan@earthlink.net) has joined channel #help
<jenny> OMFG
<katie> OMFG
<soldier> OMFG
<soldier> the damn thing just went off and took out the cook and the chaplain
<katie> hi taylor, how r u????
<techie> I see. Recommend you replace gatling gun immediately.
<taylor> hi katie
<soldier> roger
*** soldier has left channel #help
<taylor> jenny, how r u? r u busy saturday night?
<katie> f u jenny
*** katie has left channel #help
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
If not for the Internet most Americans would never have heard that much of the intelligence information Colin Powell presented to the U.N. was based on outdated, and plagiarized material. The U.S. press simply didn't report it. So among other things, in wartime the Internet is going to continue to be very important for getting reliable information beyond state propaganda.
Of course if the United States' press didn't have their noses stuck up the ass of the government and the corporate establishment they might learn how to ask probing and difficult questions, and we wouldn't have to go looking for truthful reporting and real analysis from outside sources.
-- thinkyhead software and media
"The biggest achievement of the internet is that it reduces a nuclear war to nothing more than a series of routing errors"
--Anon
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
resistance is futile.
this kinda realtime adaptation to battlefield problems is one step in the borgish direction. the more that i see of our growing ability to collaborate the more it seems like the borg, but the less it bothers me. maybe not all group-minds are created equal.
bottom line is how our assimilation of Iraq turns out. if we're conquerors, that's one thing. if we're liberators, that's another thing.
I can't believe they use Microsoft. Imagine getting the system crashing in the middle of a war. That really would be the Blue Screen of Death!!!
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
You think my post is bullshit? I really don't care what a 14yo AC who hasn't the stones to post under his real account thinks. Besides, unless you've got security clearance and NTK, I can't tell you.
Sorry, but I take the national security agreement I signed very seriously.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.