Tomorrow's Wars Will Be Livestreamed (vice.com)

Something unique and (in some way) unprecedented happened earlier today. The start of the invasion of Mosul, a city held by ISIS in Iraq, was live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube, and thousands of people around the world watched it. There were several streams that got popular, but one shared by Kurdish outlet Rudaw was getting the most traction -- it was re-posted by major outlets like the Washington Post and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. Motherboard adds: While some viewers commented on the merits of the offensive, for others, the livestream itself was the most startling thing. As angry cartoon faces and "Wow!" emoticons floated over top of live images of war, viewers noted that it all seemed like a bit too much like a sci-fi fever dream about a war-obsessed culture. For most English-language viewers watching these streams, there was no explanation, no given context, no subtitles or translation -- merely images of a mostly-barren foreign landscape peppered with men and trucks, idling and standing around, sparsely punctuated by violence. But in 2016, decades after Lessons of Darkness was completed and on social media instead of in a darkened arthouse theatre, the void spits out something other than deep, metaphysical understanding about human nature. Instead, in the comments, people ask for money. They talk about porn. They quote Green Day lyrics. They call people "cucks." To be fair, however, not everyone reacted this way. But a lot of people did. "There's journalistic value in the livestream,"

Comments

What do you mean 'tomorrow'?

[roman_mir]

I saw live stream of the Iraq invasion, it has been done, I only expect it to be livestreamed now with drone feeds, body cams and all.

Re:It worked for ancient Rome

[postbigbang]

The First Gulf War was "livestreamed" on TV. Nothing new to see here.....

Paging Heinlein

[Jimbob The Mighty]

I would like to know more...

Re:Bread and circuses at the end of the empire.

[turbidostato]

ADDERALL

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

Oh good

[waspleg]

all we need is an alien bug invasion to make "Starship Troopers" a reality. What's doogie howser up to these days anyway? Psychic warfare research?

Re:The Bravery of Being Out of Range

[SvnLyrBrto]

Oh please... Does the Battle of Agincourt ring a bell? Clever people have been figuring ways to strike at the enemy from longer range pretty much since the beginning of warfare. And the losers have whined about the "unfairness" and questioned the "bravery of being out of range"... right up until the point that they invented new weapons and were themselves the ones fighting from out of range.

It's nothing new, and it's not going to stop.