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The Soldier is the Network
Roland Piquepaille writes "This article from InfoWorld says that "in the battle of the future, the helmet becomes a data retrieval device." It describes a scenario where soldiers are equipped with sensors and other networking equipment. "Each person is a network with routing capability to everyone else," says Peter Marcotullio, director of development at SRI International. This technology should be available in five years for the military, which probably means that we'll become networks ourselves ten years from now. Check this column for a summary. Please note that this article is part of a special report called "From the battlefield to the enterprise" which looks at why some key technologies -- deployed on a massive scale in Afghanistan and Iraq -- may hold promise for corporate IT."
Pretty snide remark, considering it's coming from a navy trainer/warmonger.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
I'm going to get flamed for saying this, but America's Army are cowards, compared to the average third world force. Their lives back home are too comfortable, and their foreign wars of hegemony too personally meaningless, for them to be willing to risk their lives to the same extent as soldiers from many other countries. Honestly, who can blame US soldiers or their families for not wanting Johnny to come home in a body bag? The American reliance on "force multipliers" is specifically designed not only to guarantee a win, but also to make war more palatable to their own troops, and the population back home.
On the upside, this doctrine will hopefully continue to make a US nuclear first strike unneccessary, and minimize the butchery caused by incompetent/misinformed commanders...
Freedom: "I won't!"
Actually, Bush the Elder made the unfortunate mistake of actually listening to the U.N. in some mistaken belief that stopping as per the U.N. accord was to the advantage of the U.S. We all saw how ridiculous that action was over the next decade, especially with a follow-on administration more interested in appeasement and wag-the-dog deflection of attention. Fortunately, the ineffectiveness of the U.N. did not paralyze Bush the Junior and a horrid dictator has been removed (hopefully from the face of the earth). Perhaps we have learned our lesson and the future leaders of the U.S. will remember that the safety of the American people comes first - but the American people have a great tendency to forget the cost of their freedom and instead elect those promising pots full of chicken.