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A Marine's-Eye View of the Networked Battlefield
Ian Lamont writes "Tyler Boudreau, a Marine veteran of the war in Iraq and a blogger, has written an interesting analysis of the impact of email, IM, and other digital devices upon 'ground-pounders' and their commanders in the field. These innovations were introduced in hopes of increasing situational awareness, rapidly gathering data, analyzing it, organizing it, and then pushing it back out to operators as actionable intelligence. They also provide commanders with the freshest possible information and aid them in their moment-to-moment decision-making. However, Boudreau found that the technologies can lead to micromanagement and deep frustration, trends that he illustrates by describing a shooting incident in al Anbar and its aftermath. He also warns that soldiers can become too dependent upon headquarters for critical decisions, which can lead to dangerous situations when communications get cut off."
A soldier is to OBEY, not think. Soldiers were never intended to make their own decisions, unless to decide which order to obey first. Soldiers are tools, and as such need to be completely dependent on their masters for their thoughts and decisions. If they do not, they might decide to do something else with their lives, or to disobey orders that are either unlawful, outright evil, or against their own interests. Soldiers are the product of collectivism and brainwashing (with very few exceptions) and as such, should stop complaining that they are tools. Going into said line of work without their eyes open was THEIR mistake, not that of the command authorities.
Just deserts, IMHO.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
That's not flamebait at all. Soldiers are TRAINED to not think for themsleves from the minute they get to bootcamp until they reach their MOS. The only way to get someone to do something that will likely get them killed is to get them to stop thinking about the ramifications of their actions. You have to literally turn off their critical thinking skills if you want to be able to sacrifice them on the battlefield. And yes, you do have to be able to sacrifice a few soldiers.
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
Aren't they all just a bunch of myrmidons anyway? Just like cops, when the next Hitler comes along they'll gladly give him the might that he needs, so long as they're told it's their "duty" and that to do otherwise would be "unpatriotic".
Read the TFA. The author uses "soldier" to describe the impacts of these technologies on the battlefield. Clearly, they are not limited to the Marines.
It is every soldiers job to question the legal validity of their orders - 'I was just following orders' has not been an acceptable excuse for actions for many years now.
The US is a country where the government controls the military and the population, while performing the magnificent trick of making the people think they're still in control. The government gets their cake, and eats it too.